


the end in the beginning

by Maxine333



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:08:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 55,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27760534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maxine333/pseuds/Maxine333
Summary: Its been a month since Galaxia left, Usagi, the girls, Mamoru and their friends are all in a new phase of their lives just as a new enemy emerges, bent on destroying them. Will the strength of the senshi together be enough? With old friends and new friends coming in to help everyone must fight to protect everything they hold dear.
Relationships: Chiba Mamoru/Tsukino Usagi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: new directions in life & date night  
So here's the new story, nothing is owned by me, all rights go to Naoko Takeuchi who created this wonderful world we all love to visit, read and write about. So please read, review and enjoy!

The end in the beginning ch.1

Usagi POV

I couldn't believe it had been over a month since things finally started to settle down. I was happy Galaxia was saved, especially after all the damage that had been done, something that required my crystal, the last bits of it to be reformed again. Last time I had done it was when Mistress 9 tried to bring Pharaoh 90 to our home. He completely decimated Mugen academy and the surrounding buildings.

It took the crystal to renew it and bring life back once more. So I did that with Galaxia's destruction. She nearly won, and I won't lie I came close to dying myself. I had lost nearly everyone that I loved and I knew that if I didn't reach her I would lose the rest to. It's what made me so thankful that the Starlight's were there for me in the end. They fought by my side even when deep down I knew part of them wanted to flee.

I think it was their stubborn nature that prevented them from doing so, that and the oath they took as soldiers to their own princess. I knew she held a special place in their hearts as they did for her, just as I do for my senshi and for them to me. It's what makes our bond so strong. It's what makes us a driving force to be reckoned with. We had battled so much over the past few years so at this point we were battle hardened.

Yet at the same time, despite the fact that they were a great help to us, I was also glad that she and the Starlight's had decided to go home. I know the Starlight's had to rebuild their planet and salvage what was left. It was their home after all. Their world really so it made sense. Granted part of me wished they'd stayed longer but at that point they were ready to leave and I didn't blame them.

They had spent most of their time here on earth searching for their princess just for the sole purpose of taking her back home to rebuild and protect her. Staying here would have taken them away from that. Honestly if it were me I'd go back to my home planet to, but this world was my home planet now. Just as the moon had been in our past lives even though the girls did have their own respective planets to grow up on.

Galaxia herself is still returning all the star seeds to their respectful homes, the ones that survived her wrath anyways. I know it pains her now to see the pain and devastation she's caused by her actions. The guilt will eat away at her for a while to come but that's to be expected. The star seeds that can't be returned will be given to the great cauldron to be reborn at another date. I knew this would also be a form of punishment for her to bear.

To carry the pain of her actions and to return them home will be a great pain to bear but its necessary. I know she caused a lot of damage to many planets, many people, but I also knew that she was coerced by a greater force to turn against her own kind as she did. It was what made my fight with her so tough, I hadn't wanted to truly fight or harm another senshi so when I felt a part of her deep inside I saw something.

It had been brief at best but I saw where it began for her. The entity that lead her down this path and knew who it was. Galaxia had been to many worlds before, yet she hadn't known evil could take many forms. In this case, as I came to the conclusion later on, evil, chaos, took on the form of Wiseman and convinced her of what he wanted her to do. Convinced her of what she should do when deep down that wasn't what she really wanted.

Seeing that image in her head, and the feelings I got from it I knew it was similar to when Chibi Usa had been taken in by him. Grant different time lines but still. It was the same feeling. Chaos was trying to instill evil into one of the strongest senshi to beat out the rest. With Galaxia, had she won, the moment she took us down chaos could have taken over, killed her, and reigned supreme in the universe. Her pride, anger and cockiness would have gotten her killed in a fight with him and darkness would have ruled over all.

Chaos would have won and spread its evil influence everywhere. I hated to admit to it but it honestly was a great plan for evil to hatch. It almost won yet thankfully we persevered and now we were training hard every week to sharpen our minds and focus. Yes we were still having normal lives but as we finally had to admit, we weren't normal people and we never would be so the normal that we had would have to do.

Galaxia for what she really wanted, simply to be loved and cared for will happen for her. She was deceived and turned. I had a feeling that while yes she won the fight against chaos that he may have been the plan all along, loose to one of the best senshi out there, let her take it in and corrupt her from the inside. Use her as a conduit to hurt others and take out anything that stood in its way by convincing her of what it wanted by making her think it's what she wanted and needed to be the best, for total control.

Granted this was merely a theory but still. I know I only lasted because of not only my own stubbornness and will, but also because of the wonder sisters in arms I had by my side. The Starlight's were amazing in helping me to. It's also why I couldn't kill Galaxia. We were supposed to be on the same side and despite watching her kill, temporarily as it was, my best friends and sisters in arms she too was a sister in arm.

I think that was the only reason why the girls weren't too upset with me. They knew that while yes she needed to be stopped that she too was a senshi and she had been manipulated into all of what happened. In a way she was one of our greatest enemies to date. I couldn't think of someone else who had nearly taken so many of us out. Not even Beryl herself in the beginning had ever managed to accomplish such a feat, and we were still so new and young to being senshi at the time to.

Now even though it's only been a few years since Beryl came around before she was destroyed, it feels like were so much more grown up and mature than we used to be. Gone is the fourteen year old adolescent that got into fights with her brother and read manga without a care in the world. She was still there mind you but I didn't read my manga nearly as often as I used to and these days I became more focused on training with my crystal.

After my run in with Galaxia I wanted to be more connected with it than before. I wanted to allow its full power to be able to flow through me without nearly getting killed. Or killed. I still winced in memory of that. Either way I was building on the connection and I already felt it getting better. I think even the new additions into my life were helpful to. I'm now working part time, after school of course, at the arcade with Motoki and his little sister.

Granted it was only a few days out of the week it actually helped out with ending my allowance with my parents and making me feel a little bit more grown up and less like a child. Plus I know my parents were actually glad that I was taking the initiative to do better for myself and actually wanted to work. I remember my mom was stunned to see me up before noon on a weekend and had asked why I couldn't be this enthusiastic about choirs.

That answer had been simple enough, I got a paycheck with work, you got an allowance with choirs. So I did my choirs without an allowance and got a steady part time pay check that made me feel like I was entering the working world. The girls were happy about it and so was I. I know even Mamoru, despite his hesitance felt after he watched me work one time that it was a good fit for me.

Plus as I reasoned it gave me a chance to interact with kids and if I was going to be a school teacher someday which I still planned to train to become, after all it's not like there's lessons in being a Queen or ruler of a planet. If there is even Luna nor Artemis knows of them. So instead I choose to plan and train at becoming a teacher. Something that was tangible and something I felt passionate about.

Yes I know that being a future Queen was still out there but not anytime soon, and when we still didn't even know, so until then I was going to do what I did best, train to be a great senshi, strengthen myself in all areas, and for this training, use my job to get used to being around kids for hours on end. At least that was my reasoning other than to make my own money, not from parents, and more of it.

Honestly the work here seemed almost just the same if not lighter compared to simple choirs at home. Apparently one is more motivated to do the job when one gets paid proper wages and doesn't have a parent yelling at you to remind you to do something or throwing your own laundry back at you if you didn't do it. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful my parents did give me an allowance as it was a nice way to buy the few things I had wanted, but I could blow through it in comics pretty easily.

With an actual paycheck from Motoki I felt like I was really working only half the time, I mean working while having fun in one of my favorite places. Bonus was I got to have all the free chocolate shakes I wanted. Turns out despite ones love for chocolate you can only drink so many of those in a week when you're surrounded by them…and have to make them for customers with cherries or strawberries as a topper turns out not so much fun.

At least not after the hundredth one made. They even become less appealing when you have to watch someone else drink them so yeah lowered my intake of them to only weekly at best. I had even been talking to Miss. Haruna about my idea to become a teacher and after she nearly dropped her jaw to the floor, some even I couldn't fault her for, she really got into telling me which colleges were best for my career field to get into. It gave us something more than past failed grades to talk about.

I think she was initially just awestruck that one of her former worst students decided to become a teacher of all things and came to her for advice and guidance. I had already begun to look up the requirements for the college classes and knew if I was going to make it happen that I'd have to buckle down for my last couple of years in high school and pass all of my tests with flying colors to even be considered educated enough to teach other students later on.

It was why the girls and I kept up and worked to increase the study sessions we did though it did get hard after a while. Especially when some of the other girls gained their own extracurricular projects to focus on. Something I was happy about as it gave everyone a chance to branch out and discover more passions and hidden talents that some were either to shy or not confident enough beforehand to try.

Much like myself when it came to teaching. I had to get inspired for it. As much as part of me wanted to be like my mother, at the end of the day I enjoyed teaching kids so I went from there just as the other girls did. Makoto had taken up a culinary class at our high school. She wanted to improve on technics that she already had and learn which new flavors could be combined so she could in turn incorporate them herself and try new combinations and create new recipes out of the current ones.

While the class wasn't exactly a prerequisite to anything, it still thrilled her and allowed her to flourish as a cook and baker. We had already had many of her home baked goodies in the past of what she combined together so we knew that she was going to go far in the class. In fact, I think she was already in the top five students there and had gotten there within her first week alone, especially out of I think thirty or so students.

To us that was pretty impressive. We knew she was capable of great things but still impressive to accomplish. The professor who also turned out to be a head chef at a famous restaurant himself had even told Makoto that when she's ready he'd love to take her to his restaurant sometime to show her more combinations. We think he was even wanting to see if he could make her a chef at his restaurant when she graduated.

A feat that we learned was rare to gain from someone of his stature. Makoto had been floored by the invite and ended up learning even more during the lesson when she took it recently than in the classroom. She had never been happier when she received his rave review over her taste pallet or how she combined flavors that had been explored in those areas before to use. I mean a raspberry glaze over a fire grilled salmon was amazing.

I think baking for Makoto makes her feel more feminine without having it shoved onto her and that's something she likes. The subtle femininity that is wanted and seen but not pushed upon, not like having your feet pushed into six-inch stilettos and asked to walk around like your feet were born in them. That wasn't Makoto's style, Ami's, or even mine for that matter. I liked heels but anything about five inches got difficult to walk around in for more than a few hours, how Minako did it was a mystery.

Speaking of Minako, she was asked to get back into modelling. As it turns out when one of her old agents moved out here to Japan a few weeks ago she wanted to use her image for new Sailor V ads. Apparently when Sailor Venus made the scene out here, it traveled all the way to England where she used to live and revitalized the want for more merchandise. While the original became worth more money, they wanted to start making more merchandise.

Their next ad campaign related more to revealing that V was Venus and give her more of a back -round story so the agent talked to Minako and as Minako was still in school and was also unwilling to uproot to England simply for a modeling gig, especially as she was happy here in Japan and still needed to finish school, the agent came to her with the intent to start the new phase off and put a new spin on it.

It just hadn't happened as of yet which she was fine with. She enjoyed being a model, but she enjoyed spending time having a normal life as we all did, and a model's life wasn't entirely normal. Much like Ami's early on time in the hospital wasn't. she was so dedicated to her field of study that she did more volunteer work with the nurses as an aid to learn more. She had even started to take some college entry level courses.

That was online of course but still it was huge for her to get into since she was still a teenager. It was rare to find that these days especially before she even hit 18. Her mother even had her come in to help her as an assistant with the doctor present to let her begin to get some hands on training and even though it was a little unprecedented, he allowed it and saw how quickly Ami was to adapting to medical situations.

Of course tending to our own injuries on the battlefield helped her out a bit so in a sense much like we were Makoto's Guinee pigs for food, we were Ami's Guinee pigs for medical assistance, after all its not like we could to go to a hospital whenever we had a severe injury. As we found out from Luna early on, our blood was different than that of a human. Once we accepted out powers it changed everything in us. We were still ourselves, but we were more than just ourselves now, much more.

So after we did our own training on our powers to keep up with a new enemy if there was a new attack she would go to the hospital after a few of the sessions to see what other new lessons she could learn. We were all positive that she would be a doctor before med school was even over with. With or without a degree she would be a doctor to us, and we knew to trust her knowledge and gut on anything she told us that was needed.

Not to mention her time spent in her advanced classes as she got in the book work needed to see about graduating early. She still planned to be there for us for graduation and to celebrate but we told her if she's able to graduate early do what was best for her education. Don't let waiting on us to slow her down. We wanted her to obtain her dream career just as much as we did with our own dream careers.

Just like Rei was working towards her own with her business classes. She was taking them in her school and doing pretty well in them. Turns out she wanted to make sure she could be able to take over the temple when Grandpa Hino wasn't able to do it anymore. He was still wiry but his vision was starting to go and she was getting worried about something on the bills getting missed so being that she already wanted to be a business woman it made sense for her to take the classes and learn more about the field.

Turns out she had a real knack for it and could take endlessly about it as we all could for our respective fields of interest. She had even invested in newer computer so she could do work on it for the classes. She never skipped out or missed out on a fire reading though. She refused to let that part of her dwindle down or numb out, so to speak. She wanted to be alert for any dangers that could be lurking around.

Especially since Galaxia slipped under our radar. I had a theory on how that happened, but I wasn't positive yet, so I didn't say anything as of yet. Instead we all became stronger and kept on training. She worked hard on her classes as did Ami and Makoto. Even grandpa Hino was happy that she had found her passion in life beyond that of the temple. He still wanted great grandkids mind you, but he figured when she was ready, he would get them.

Then there was Mamoru. My dear loving Mamoru. When he was back with us it took some adjustment for him to get back into the swing of things. Especially being away and gone for the months that he'd been out for. The first thing he had to do, after we had a passionate weekend when he returned…a very passionate weekend where we DIDN'T leave his place and were rarely clothed, was to contact the university he was originally headed to before Galaxia came in and killed him.

It was still a sensitive topic for us both yet after the many intense sexual rounds we had we finally had to talk about it. He finally told me about what happened. Yeah I had what I had imagined from Galaxia when she told me about taking his star seed, one of the most horrific moments of my life, but his version of how it went down felt even more unsettling. How the plane froze in the air barely passing Tokyo as he was looking at a picture of Chibi Usa and myself when the energy hit the plane.

How everyone was damn near knocked completely out by the impact and how his medical training kicked in as he started to assess everyone's vitals. Once he realized the threat was outside, he transformed and slipped out to confront the threat. They battled it out for a little while via swords, well her sword his saber, but his lack of training in sword fighting against someone of her caliber put him at a severe disadvantage.

He may remember some of his training from the past life that allowed him to fight our less skilled enemies before, but she had been on a whole other level that beat him badly. He had had to admit to defeat on the wing of the plane and knew he was dead. He hadn't needed to continue fighting to know he was at a severe disadvantage. Alone on the wing of a plane, no back up, no way of reaching us for support.

His powers while they had been useful were beaten out by her more advanced powers. He didn't understand then why she was so powerful, how she could beat him with such near ease that it made him, the prince of earth, the bearer of the golden crystal, look like an amateur against a hardened professional. That was till he found out that all the star seeds she had collected made her ten times stronger than him alone.

Once she told him as she was confident enough to know he wasn't going to win he knew he was done. His arm at that point was so badly injured he couldn't lift anymore; she'd cut through muscle and nearly into the bone with her sword. His saber had even been cut in half by the sheer force she wielded in her sword, right through the cover of the cane before he had a chance to use it against her, not that it would have mattered.

She had even offered him the chance to work for her and when he refused, she antagonized him to attack first. The power she wielded was enough to take him down with one shot like it was for the majority of those she took star seeds from. She felt she had the earth when she had his and that's when he told he we would take her out. Stop her. H then said he saw it in her eyes, the doubt he placed there with his words.

How he just knew that she believed him, or at the very least believed that earth held her most worthy opponent…and perhaps her salvation. He hadn't understood at the time when he saw it why he felt he saw that yet now he did know why. He didn't hate her for what happened, knowing that he himself had been taken over by evil more than once was enough to tell him that its like a poison in your body that dictates your every move.

Makes you do things you wouldn't ever do in life, not even in your darkest fantasies. It twists things around, and turns your deepest desires not only against you, but twists them into something that you never wanted to begin with yet convinced you it was what you not only wanted but needed to survive. He may not have liked her much considering but he didn't blame her, not really. He pitied her if anything.

So, when he came back, he had to adjust and accept that things had changed. His professors had initially been disappointed in his lack of response, despite him expressing his sorrows of not being able to citing 'family emergency' that came up. He applied again for a later term to go and despite my hesitance I told him I wanted him to be happy, I just worried since he seemed so ready to get back out there and I wasn't.

Not really. He was still waiting to hear back from them if he could go in at a later date, we would hopefully find out tonight on our date as he was due to pick me up from my parents place pretty soon. It was only another hour away when I'd see him, so I was just doing some pre-scrubbing before leaving out. Though I had to admit I think he was starting to wonder if it was such a good idea to…leaving out again so soon.

Almost like his decision was finally hitting him of what he was asking to do again. Anytime he saw a plane go by overhead he would take a deep breath and pull me in closer, or hold my hand tighter, a subtle small way of his anxiety hitting him as he sought some form of comfort in my presence there. I was happy to give it to him, I just didn't want him to push to do something that he wasn't yet ready for.

I got the gut feeling that he only applied again at the feeling he got from failing to show up the first time. Like a need to make it right and show them that he was worthy of being in their classes. I think it was part of his time spent in the orphanage, feeling like he was not being good enough for the families that came in to adopt the kids there. That still affected him I feel and made him want to show that he was worthy.

So, he applied once more and to other universities closer to here, Tokyo University for example, sending in his submission last week. The last day for a reply from either was today so now it was merely a matter of playing the waiting game and he wasn't one for waiting. He was a man of action, so he went out earlier for a jog through the park to help calm his nerves and to avoid looking at his phone every five minutes.

I waited myself during this time as I got some choirs done around the house till it was about fifteen to, to get dressed and apply my light amount of make-up, more like lip gloss and that had been about it. I put on a simple pink dress that was form fitting yet loose around my legs to allow for easy walking. It was a light shimmering pink that matched perfectly with my light pink lip gloss and the heels that I paired them with.

Yes, the pink was a tad cliched, but the design of the dress was very adult and showed off the fact that I was a growing young woman. In fact, the dress even showed off the fact that I had a feminine figure to be seen in a subtle yet sexy way that wasn't in your face. So, when Mamoru came by to pick me up, I saw his formal dress attire in the nice shirt and dress pants. Mother waved us off as we left off for the evening.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were seated within ten minutes. We caught up on my shifts this past week as he told me about how he had to write a very explanatory letter about why he couldn't attend till this next semester. I could tell there was guilt in him for it. I reached across the table to touch his hand with my own, he took comfort in it as I say, "They'd be foolish to NOT accept you in a second time around."

He smiles, "Thanks…seriously. You've been my rock through all of this. I don't know what I'd do without you in my life." I smile as they bring out the food. I was actually quite hungry, and this was the same restaurant that Makoto's chef teacher worked for when he wasn't teaching, so I knew the food was quality. I ate my Yakitori as he ate his Soba, both were delicious as we even had some of the others dinner to.

As we were enjoying the dinner, I was telling him about my latest conversation with Miss. Haruna about my taking classes for teaching when he got a call. He looked at his phone with curiosity then with a mixed expression of excitement and anxiety, "It's the university." He told me. I motioned to his phone, "Answer it." I was hopeful for him, becoming a doctor was his dream and I fully supported him even if he would be FAR from me, I still supported his decision to do this.

The conversation seemed a bit one side though. He didn't same to much and just listened. I knew the person on the other end was talking but I couldn't make out much of it, it just didn't make sense, especially as the other patrons in the restaurant were talking to. I was hard pressed to stop myself from shushing them since this was a public place but soon enough the call was done with as Mamoru breathed deeply in.

It was truly hard to see if this was good or bad news, it seemed to still be sinking in. So, when he stayed on his phone and then smiled, I was hoping this meant good news. "Mamo – chan…?" I calmly asked as he finally looked back up at me. "Sorry, I…that was the university over in America." I gestured for him to continue, "They're not accepting me in." this had me both hurt for him and curious as o why he was smiling.

"Apparently while 'death in the family' is an emergency, not only can they not accept me in this late into a term even if it is for the following semester, but, thanks to the essay I did to get in the first time, the mention of 'no blood family left' that I'm aware of anyways…" I nodded feeling for him on that one. "That has them feeling since there's no blood relatives for there to be a 'death in the family', that even if was a 'friends' passing that had occurred, that it doesn't count as anything more than that so therefore the reason I used isn't accepted."

I was stunned as he put his phone down. As he nearly chuckled. "They said I would have to wait till the following year to try again." I really felt for him. I wanted to reach across the table and hug him, but we were in a nice restaurant, so I resisted. "I'm sorry." I didn't know what else to say, this was his dream, and it was being denied to him because of yet again an enemy screwing with our lives.

"Maybe we could go down to the emissions office together, plea with them to let you in, explain that it was a family death, that family doesn't end with blood. Mamo – chan this is your dream, if you tell them then maybe…" I tried as he put his hand over mine, "Usako no. This was a sign for me to not pursue it with them and frankly I'm kind of glad to NOT be going." This had me stuttering to a stop. "What do you mean." I can't help but ask. "This is your dream!" I try as I aim at keeping my voice low.

He smiles, "Usako I'm glad cause, I think I jumped the gun on wanting to go anywhere away from you to soon. I felt obligated from everything that had happened and guilty that an opportunity given to me was washed away as it was. Yes, it was an amazing opportunity that rarely comes by, but it will again and IF I want it in the future, I'll take it." I sigh as I let his words sink in.

"Truth is I'm not ready to leave Japan anytime soon. Hell, anytime I see a plane go by in the air I just remember what happened the last time and…I just can't. Not yet." He expresses as I take his hand in mine. I Had a feeling this was the cause go but I knew he'd have to come to it on his own terms, "Its fine, I understand how a huge life change can impact on oneself. Remember starlight tower?" I ask as he nods.

"It took me a while to go back to that place after I lost you the first time and it was only for senshi business that I did. It was hard to see the place where you bled out from being injured, from where you were taken from me." I swallow, "And yeah it took time to go back but I did…eventually. Have I been there since? Not really. Its not on my top ten list of things to do." I joke to him.

I can tell he's about to tell me something so instead I say, "So when your ready to go back, there are other forms of travel that can be taken if you still feel that way then." He smiles, "You're a good woman to me Usako…I'm lucky to have you." I smile as he then says, "I did however get into Tokyo University." My eyes widen and brighten up for him, "Next term I'll be in since they go on a different scheduling rotation pattern." I can't help this one as I get up and go around the table to hug him.

Sensing this he stands up to greet me, "I'm so proud of you." I tell him before I kiss him gently, "And I'm proud of you." He responds back, "Becoming a school-teacher yourself someday won't be easy, and yet your working towards doing it. You're already talking to Miss. Haruna about it and beginning to take some courses for early childhood development." I smile as he kisses me back.

For a moment we both forget that were in a public place as we kiss. As it goes on past a few moments the waiter comes by and clears his throat, "Perhaps you'd like the rest of your meal to go." The gentle suggestion is met with a bill as he places it on the table and leaves. "I think that would be a great idea." The expression on Mamoru's face is clear as day for what he wants next and honestly, I can't wait now either.

It was a tense ride back to his place as I told my parents I'd be over at Rei's place and sent Rei a text to confirm it if they called. She knew the drill and thankfully my parents never did call but it was an insurance policy just to be safe to know what to do. So, when we got to his place, we made sure the front door was locked before we kissed our way to the bedroom. Partly to celebrate and partly to relish being with each other.

Yes, we had had sex before several times in fact but each time we got to be together it was amazing. We forgot about our troubles, forgot about the world beyond us, we literally sunk into each other and felt everything else melt away. Once we rounded the corner wall, he lifted me up into his embrace as I wrapped my legs around his waist. My dress hiked up past my thighs to my rear as he pulled it up further to grasp onto my butt.

I wiggled my feet till my heels fell off, his shoes were kicked off themselves as I undid the buttons on his shirt, feeling the smooth expansion of his chest as he kicked the door to the bedroom open. The kisses produced a trail that went down my neck as he found the zipper and pulled it down from the middle of my back to my lower back. His hands immediately dove in to feel the contours of my back.

I kissed him feverishly as he deposited me gently on the bed, not giving me a moment to be separated from him until he pulled my dress up and over my head leaving me nearly naked in his presence as I only had on a pair of panties on. Glimmering pink panties with a bright pink jewel encrusted on the back of them. The cris cross design pulled into the fact that I was well trimmed for his pleasure down there as he reached in and underneath to rub his hand against my rapidly heating core.

Mamoru always did know how to light me on fire. He seemed to know the handbook to getting me off when even I didn't know it to well. There were things he did to me that when I did them to myself didn't do hardly anything, when he did them, trails of fire in his path. He rubbed on me as I undid his pants and reached in to rub on him as well. He grunted from the effects as I slowly jerked him off.

His fingers dipped in for a little bit before he gave up, pulled out but only to pull my panties off and drop himself down to press his face in and start to lick me like candy. His fingers were in me as he pumped them in and out. I couldn't stop grasping at the sheets as he continued his work on my heated depths. "Please!" I begged of him as he only relented long enough to ask, "Please what?" I grunted, "Want you in me."

He smiles but doesn't say much before he pushes himself completely inside of me. I gasp loudly as he grunts form the force of it. That's when he says, "Like that?" as I can only nod my head in encouragement at his heated length pressed so intimately inside of me. He begins a slow steady rhythm that makes me grasp onto his shoulders. I love these moments with him, so easy and fluid yet when he twists things around like he's going to do I can't help but get excited and want more of what he does.

So, when he flips us over, to where I'm straddling him, I take the advantage and ride him harder than he was riding me. He groans from it and grasps onto my hips, guiding me just a bit as I push up and down onto him. I can feel his member pushing against all the right places inside of me as I hear my own voice getting louder and louder with each call. Each beckon for more as slowly but surely, he rides me harder than I'm riding him…and I'm on top.

Soon enough I ride him harder, feeling myself crash down onto him with every thrust as he grunts from the impact, encouraging me to keep moving. I can feel his hips canting upwards, trying to ride me harder still as I push down against his upward thrust. It's an intense feeling that has me crying out from the impact. He's so massive that sometimes it feels like its to much, especially towards the end when he gets bigger right before he comes, but then he massages my clit like he is right now to make me whimper for more.

I ride into the massage as I begin to feel myself climbing the wall of pleasure towards orgasm, that is until he switches positions again on me. This time, once he pulls out to make the position change happen, he turns me away from him to be on our sides and comes up behind me and positions himself again as he pushes back in…from behind and I can't help but hold him closer for more of him.

I can feel how wet he's making me as we ride each other. Its seeping out as he kisses me over and over again. Getting them in where we can as we're constantly moving against each other, "I love you Usako…" he captures my lips and holds me close as I do the same to him, enjoying the closeness we have with each other. "I love you to…my Mamo – chan…" I tell him as he keeps pumping himself in and our at a nice pace that builds as we go along the way, "Always yours Usako…always…" he utters as I can feel him getting there.

Not wanting this to end just yet I move us around this time by rolling him onto his back and keeping on him near cowgirl style till he props his knees up under mine, as I use them to ride him. The position is new for us both amazing nonetheless as he grasps onto my rear and slaps it gently a few times. I rock back into him several times as I enjoy the languid pace yet we both know this won't last for long.

We both want this to end as much as we want it to keep going on to. I can feel it as he can, so when he pulls my legs out and has me truly in a cowgirl position, I can't help but ride him harder as he pushes himself up against me. Using his legs, he bounces himself upward and hits home inside of me harder than before. I can feel the pace speeding up as he gets deeper into me. He holds me down onto him so he can push himself up harder and grind his strokes into me as I cry out for more of him.

We ride each other hard as I go by sound and touch to know when he's coming since I can't see him without disrupting the rhythm. Were both chasing that friction as we both need it to happen, badly. So, when I feel him getting bigger within me, I scream out one last time and feel my own orgasm explode within me. My walls tighten up around him as he grunts and grinds one last time deep inside of me.

His orgasm takes several moments to pass through as he holds me up for a moment before gently removing me and holding me to him from the side. We slowly catch our breath and calm our rapid heart beats down. "Congratulations again." I mutter as I breath deeply in. He chuckles before pulling my face towards him to kiss him again, "Thanks." He smiles, "Now I'm going to continue to explore my congrats gift."

He then decides to go for round two as I feel my body twitch for more. I look out the window briefly and see the moon glowing at me from the outside. It feels like all is finally right in the world and nothing can shake us from it. So, as he makes love to my body once more tonight, I'm once again reminded of how lucky I am in this life to have someone like him in it, "Explore away…" I tell him and sink into the feelings he provokes.

Chapter 2: fire reading & investigation  
SereStarOfGaea: I agree its one of the reasons why I decided to write this one out. It was also new territory for me to since I don't recall doing post stars before this one. You'll have to wait and see on the rest though. Lol

SerenityxEndymion: It is a viable reason for him to not having accepted it. As strong as he knows Usagi is he also knows she's human to and feels loneliness as anyone would.

LoveInTheBattleField: there's more to come.

kera69love: this is definitely a multichapter story. I'm debating on if it'll be longer than my last story or not…or the same.

phillynz: its good to have this one out. 😊

5 reviews, that's a nice start, this is just the beginning of this story here so there's going to be a lot to enjoy, lots of drama, some humor, sex, and twists and turns so stay tuned and let me know what you think!

The end in the beginning ch.2

Rei POV

Getting back from my business class was nice, don't get me wrong I loved to learn more about the world of business, the different licensing, permits and all that, even the structure of how it all worked was a form of excitement to get into, yet sometimes even I needed a break from all of it and to decompress. The best method for that for me was some yoga followed by a meditation session in the fire chamber.

After bending all over the place, getting into some positions that would make a gymnast wince at I was feeling better about it all. Business class was new and exciting but sometimes the numbers began to blur together rather than stay separated. So once the yoga is done with I know I'm ready to get into my robes for the fire. I change my attire once more so I can be more comfortable in front of the fire.

I sat down and once settled I began to do my chants. By this point I was becoming very well connected with the sacred fires. The candles nearby even popped on when I entered the room simply by walking past them. I had a feeling my powers much like the others were advancing even more now and that, in my opinion, was good. We had all become more connected with our elemental powers since our time in fighting over the years, but even more so since our latest fight with Galaxia happened.

We were training harder than before and did what we could to try to tap into a deeper connection to our powers. See if we could level up by being better trained rather than hoping to wing it as we did in the beginning. Even though it wasn't too long ago, merely a few years, we had all been naïve at some point or another in our thinking and methods of how to beat the enemy. Galaxia proved that in a sense of her own.

We wanted to do better so that when the next enemy came, not if but when, we would be not only prepared but wouldn't be wiped out so damned easily as when we fought against fellow senshi Galaxia. I closed my eyes remembering that day. Swallowed the saliva in my throat as I focused myself. We were so un-prepared for that fight that I was actually ashamed to call myself the goddess of war.

I was one of the inner senshi. We the inner senshi were taken out all too easily and never even actually truly fought against Galaxia. Not really. Having her power hit each of us, no time to dodge or duck was like having a bullet tear a hole right through us and being a death strike on the first hit alone. If this were one of Usagi's video games we were level ten and Galaxia had been a level 50.

The flames around me flickered higher in my anger of those thoughts. I couldn't help but think about it though. Out of all the previous enemies we've had never once did a single strike take us out on moments flat. Even Beryl's minions at the end took several strikes at us and even then we not only fought to the death but we won. We got Usagi to Beryl and she, along with our spiritual essences, beat her.

We did it together as a team in the end. Galaxia, in my opinion wasn't a true team effort. Usagi was left to face her with outside help. It should have been us, the way it it's always been and we weren't strong enough to get to that point. We were supposed to be strong senshi, triumph over evil, and yet in that head to head battle we were in, we lasted mere seconds and I hated it and to be honest I hated myself for it.

We stood there ready for the strikes to come, thinking we needed to be out in front of it. I should have had Ami get out her computer to see what could have been done, or had Makoto and Minako hold off to the side and see how we could have strategized it better. Maybe if I had thought of something else to do, we might have been able to hit her from behind. Gotten her off course. Or as Haruka and Michiru did, tried an alternative method.

It wasn't usually my style to do something so bold as what they did BUT to find out that Galaxia didn't HAVE a star seed was something HUGE to discover. WE should have discovered that, or something crucial earlier. Plus I hated to admit it but I wasn't so sure that any of us inner senshi could have had the will power to overcome the power of the bracelets the way they did and pretend to turn all the while still being true to their mission and their love for not just each other but to our princess to.

They shocked even Galaxia with their move and dare I say it earned a bit of respect from her on it. At least that was the impression gained. So, knowing how WE went down angered me. I could feel my powers making the flames go higher in the prayer room. I knew I had to simmer down but I was upset by this. Those power strikes were right in front of us to. They were so damned fast to. Sometimes I can still see them in my dreams.

Like some bad weird PTSD or something. No other enemy gave me this feeling before. Sure I had prophetic dreams before, but that was a warning of what was to come. I didn't get anything regarding what happened with Galaxia. No I just saw them coming at us. They were like golden bleary lights that took our very breath and life away. We didn't see any of them coming and we should have, we should have ducked, dodged and moved Usagi out of the way though I know she would have dodged it to.

I faltered a tad in my focus thinking about it but resumed my stance. Our instincts were good, but they needed to be better. We needed to be better, to be the best that I knew we could be, the ones that would eventually protect for a life duty Usagi and her family when she and Mamoru came to power. Those guardians were us and I fully intended for us to become those brave, bad ass, not to be messed with women that could hold up a barrier against those forces for such a long length of time.

To hold such control and command over one's own power that you could ensure the safety and security over your loved ones and have a shield up above them. We needed to achieve that. To be better, not just for the control over power though, no far from it, that was only one small aspect, not this was to be able to advance our powers and to do what was right and needed to protect the innocents out there better than before.

That was something that I pushed for us to work on. Usagi and the other agreed that we needed to keep sharp and strong. Galaxia as far as I was concerned at this point was merely another enemy turned good in the long line of enemies that could be had. There were the enemies that we couldn't save but they were too far gone that even Usagi allowed the silver crystal to purify the evil till there was none left.

It just wound up being nothing in some cases. Beryl was reduced to nothing but dust at best, Wiseman and pharaoh 90 were the same way. No saving. So in this case, when we were taken out by Galaxia, when we fought her, unlike in previous battles where we had been through hell this lasted so little time that I knew our ends were eminent. The images of my grandfather and our friends went through my head.

So when I looked to Usagi and saw her grief I knew she would use it, channel it to bring us all back. I just knew and that alone gave me hope that we would be back around to see those we loved and be around each other again. Cause I also knew there was no coming back from it, not this time, not without Usagi there to take care of it and I knew at that point when we returned that she had done it somehow.

I saw our future Queen in her then and knew that despite any previous doubts or misgivings I had about her, she showed through in the end why she was the senshi of rebirth. So we worked, we trained hard and mastered our current powers and strove to work them in new ways so we could better them and ourselves. It was a work in progress, but it was working, and I knew we all felt better for it.

Even Usagi mentioned how she felt more connected with her crystal since she started to train with it more often. So I made sure to keep up with my own training as each of us did individually as well as together as a group. It's one of the reasons why I took up yoga to help me become more centered and focused as I did have anger in me still from the battle with Galaxia. It helped me to refocus my energies and redistributed my anger into something more productive like stronger fire readings.

So as I focused on the fire and allowed myself to get lost in the meditation of it I could feel the flames growing hotter. My control was back in place as the other flames behind me got lower but hotter. This was usually a good sign that I was getting closer to something more. I whispered the words that brought me closer to meditation and locked my fingers into the right place for the symbols to pull up and stay trained.

I saw the flame as I usually did. As I had for the last month. There hadn't been any real activity. I watched everything that came through it for better perception. Then as I focused harder and pushed my limits even more than before and found that near otherworldly plain where I could feel the flames licking at my skin, I sensed something out there. I reached deeper into the flames, and felt them caressing my skin.

I touched them as I saw an image appear. It was speckled at first. No face just an image. I repeated the words in my head, strengthening my connection as I saw the image getting stronger, "Show yourself." I commanded into the flame. It showed the image clearer now. It's near female in its appearance but the evil surrounding it is so strong I feel like my deeper connection is also allowing it to have access to me.

I can feel it nearly choking me. I take deep inhaling breathes but it doesn't do a lot of good. I made the decision to go in deeper and I was going to stick to it. I needed more information, besides I was already in it. I saw the figure reach out towards me but with it came evil that tried to circle around me. I used my senses to push it back but it was strong. The evil was practically dripping from it as I warned it, "You will not survive here if your intentions are malicious in nature." I practically felt it smile as it said, "We shall see."

It was only then that I was pulled back out from my vision with it as I felt the flames drop down as I saw my grandfather pull me out. As much as I wanted to be irritated by him for it I was more thankful for it. That was way deeper than any meditation before. "Be careful my child…you were so deep that the flames were not only one with you but I could see the evil energies trying to surround you." His warning was touching as I smiled.

"Thanks grandpa. I guess I went a little deeper than intended." I heed him, more so to get him to leave so he could be assured that I wouldn't go deep like that again without at least someone else with me. He kissed the top of my head as he left out. I grabbed my communicator and sent a warning to all the girls on it. Even our guardian felines. Did a fire reading…be on the lookout for suspicious activity…something feels like it's coming. I put the communicator down and shut everything off as I left the room.

Usagi POV

I had only been on my shift at the arcade for less than an hour and already I was feeling both happy that I was getting everything done, getting people taken care of and nearly overwhelmed that it was packed. Even with all three of us working this shift we were all busy as hell. Motoki was even getting into the back to help the line cook get more burgers and fries out while his sister and I got drinks and shakes to the customers.

Those that were waiting for more time than they should have we worked our charm to engage them in idle chit chat to help the time go by faster so they wouldn't complain. Only then did their meals start to arrive. So when the line cook was to go home for the next shift change I volunteered to go in the back and make the burgers and fries since Motoki looked like he was sweating bullets already.

"Go ahead, anymore time back there and I'll be cooked." He muttered as he gave me the oldest orders. Putting a headband on I went around the back to the fryer and made sure to put on as many as possible especially remembering how many there were to make for everyone. Between beef, turkey, and chicken there was a LOT of meat to have on the grills and the heat times differed on them.

Throwing a ton of fries into the boiling oil to be cooked didn't help as the splatter was painful but I didn't have a choice. Twenty minutes later and over 75% of everyone was served and only the new walk in customers hadn't been. However by this point the next line cook came in for his shift and took over. I walked back out as Motoki thanked me, "Sorry about that, I didn't know the cooks had a small twenty minute lag in the scheduling." I smiled, "Its fine, I took it as a challenge that I won." I tell him as I walk around the corner.

As nice as it is to have a change-up I still like being out with the people, interacting with them and being on the move. Besides if I have to flip another burger I'll perfect the Tuskino flip and my dad will want me to grill this coming summer. "Usagi if you want since majority are eating you can go on break. We've got this covered." Before I can deny it saying I can go longer I spot an online article one of our regulars are looking at.

It catches my eye as the screen is brightly lit up. Most of the time this stuff is nonsense to me as news coverage is usually edited to make it more dramatic or leaving certain things out so I didn't pay it too much mind, but the article itself for once is concerning. I see the headline 'flight to America finally found!' the flight number that was in the article has been burned in my head since Mamoru left that fateful day for America. I remember wanting to make sure we arrived at the right gate.

I nearly dropped my notepad as I swallow thickly and ask, "What website is that?" while trying to maintain my voice as the customer responds, "Terra News. Can you believe it?" He asks as he shows me as I nod in thanks, "Yeah that's surely something." I say and take Motoki up on that break offer only to go in the back and pull out my own phone and pull up the article. I spend the next ten minutes of my break not even caring about eating anything.

My hunger melted away when I saw the headline. It brought me back to the day Mamoru left for America. When he gave me the ring that I still wore to this day and never took off. Well I took it off for when I baked with breads or pastries and dough, but I kept it hidden on me for safety reasons. When we had that last kiss before he left. When I sent him letter after letter in hopes of a response back when Chibi Chibi was in our lives and how I was in dismay when I found out the cold hard truth.

When I found out Galaxia had killed him and took him from me…from all of us. I held back a sob forcing myself to remember that he was alive and well. I even went really quickly to read his latest few texts to me as he was in classes himself so I could breathe a little more at ease again. I read on in the article that it was found, not having even left Japan as investigators were on the scene and looking it over.

It killed me that it hadn't even LEFT Japan. I waved to his plane as he took off watching it through my fingers where my ring was. We hadn't known that. For all we knew he was halfway across the sea. I stopped reading at that point letting that piece of information sink in. It wasn't even out of our air space when it was attacked. He was attacked. All those passengers were attacked by her.

How did we NOT know? I closed my eyes briefly, as I take a breather. My mind running wild with what I know now and what I can imagine happening back then. We had no idea that it had happened so close to home. I lost him sooner than I had thought I did. I saw him in those final moments. I took a look at where it was found and felt tears spring to life and begin to fall before I brushed them away.

He hadn't made it further than twenty minutes into the air, thirty max before they were all…I gasped as I was suddenly struck with an intense need. I didn't know why but I HAD to see it. My gut was telling me to go find the plane. I had to see where I nearly lost my love for good. Plus, Rei's mysterious message sent recently proved that perhaps there was something else out there. I knew this was a long shot and probably nothing more than cannon fodder, but this could be a lead into something, I just didn't know what.

I needed to follow up on it, and if it turned out to be nothing more than debris from Galaxia's attack then at least I could finally put that day to peace behind me. Then again it would do so to allow everyone that was affected by the attack to have peace of mind and closure on the issue. I know that day still bothers Mamoru. He didn't like to talk about it too much. Who would unless you needed to get it off your chest in a support group setting.

I can only imagine how bad the memories would be for him. I only saw it from a third person perspective, to having been there…I mean I had my own struggles during his absence but learning of his death, back then it hadn't been temporary for me. It had been very real, emotional, mental and raw as hell. I had just lost people that I love and care for, so to find that out had been heart breaking and gut wrenching to learn.

Now I knew I needed to talk to him about more of what he remembered, but not until after I had taken a look at the wreckage myself. I just wasn't sure if I should have him come along for this or if it would be re-traumatizing him with it. To see what he survived off from. Bad memories I knew would come with it. Yet perhaps knowing more about what happened after his death might give him a sense of closure to.

I looked up in the article again on where it was found so I could get the girls over there later on this evening. I sent out a message to all of them and those who could make it, Minako, Ami, Makoto and Rei all agreed to come out and investigate ourselves. I sent a message out to Mamoru but I knew he'd be busy so I wasn't expecting a quick response back. So I ignored that he didn't text me back right away and went back to my job so I could refocus and do some more research later on.

Besides, obsessing about it now wasn't going to help me. It would distract me from my job and I couldn't have that happen. I forced myself back to the customers that came in, ignored the lack of food in my stomach as I had lost my appetite and took down some more orders. All the while though that website and article was now stewing in the back of my mind waiting to be examined more thoroughly.

It's when I get off after work that I see a new article online about it since the page I was on had an error page and refreshed to a stupid ad all on its own. Annoying. So as I walked home I read that the majority of the people on board the plane were found dead from having their energy taken from them. As if their very life force was syphoned. Many enemies had done this before in the past.

We had dealt with this many times before and had nearly become victims of it to a few times so I knew how this worked. The startling part was the draining appeared to happen BEFORE the plane crashed to the ground. That strikes me as odd cause it doesn't line up with what Galaxia did. It wasn't really her style so to speak. She didn't bother with that. Something is definitely fishy about this now and I'm more certain now that we need to investigate this plane and figure out what's missing.

It's after a short and to long of a dinner with my family that I'm able to sneak out of the house so I can join the girls to check out the plane. We all arrive there, transforming to ensure that we could get there as quickly as possible and to help evade any police there to avoid looking like we had something to do with it. Thankfully the crash site has been sectioned off to the mass public and it safe guarded.

Only were able to get in and since it's so late in the evening the teams that were investigating earlier are probably at their own labs if not at home by now so it's only a few guards, a few police officers watching over it from out past the perimeter. Were thankfully not within their sights. "You can see where the crime lab hauled a section of it back with them for analysis." Venus notices as she sees where a section was cut off manually.

I walk inside of the wreckage and already I can feel it. The wave of fear and death in here, it's palpable. Like the cries of those that did die are echoing in here. Their screams as they died feel like it's on me now. I rub my arms as the chill slips in through me. The windows are mostly broken as the emptiness is chilling. The bodies of course have all been removed but still their cries are stuck in here.

"I'm sorry." I whimper brokenly. It's then that I notice the seating numbers and find Mamoru's on the left. I see where there's a few dropped things here and there, mainly being the oxygen masks having dropped down in the event of an emergency. That's when I see it. I pick up from his seat the ruined picture he had of Chibi Usa and myself. We were in his last thoughts before he went out to face her.

A tear rolls down my cheek as I rub on the picture then take it with me. Placing it securely in my fuku as I wipe the tear away as Mars comes in, "I can feel it…so many lives." I look to her as I can see how she's taking it in. Feeling the depth of the souls lost aboard this flight despite the ones that were saved, or rather the ones that survived. "You can feel it to." I say to her as she looks to me, her eyes become misty.

Her gloved hand touches the dirtied head rest, "Yeah…a great evil boarded this plane and took many lives with it." She then pulls out a scroll. "For them to find peace in the afterlife." She starts to chant as I can feel it work. Nothing visually happens but we can both feel it. "I heard from Mercury once she tapped into the network for the investigation that there were survivors." It's a small cold comfort but at least it's something to see I guess.

It didn't take away from what happened but at least Mars put the souls to rest and they wouldn't become vengeful to the area. Already dealt with that once before, didn't need it to happen again to anyone. That's when Mars saw his seat, "He's not coming?" she questioned as I sighed, "Couldn't get ahold of him. He's in classes all day today anyways." I explain away his absence, "Understandable…how's he doing?" she asks. I look to her and see the concerned expression of a sister asking about a friend and brother.

Funny how just a few years ago she was trying to date him, only to realize she only wanted him cause I did and we competed without even realizing it. She wanted to be the best at everything and even though I was far from the best, since I got called into duty first she felt she had to be better than me. So when he came along she opted for a way to annoy me and be better only to realize that we didn't need to compete, and they weren't anything more than friends. She even admitted that they never even kissed.

"Working through things still. The American university rejected his application and won't be accepting another from him till next year so he's going to stick with Tokyo University." I tell her as she nods, "I think it's best…for everyone but mostly him." I look to her as she steps forward, "He was following one path of his dream but the truth is, deep down, his truest dream is to have you." There were tears forming in her eyes.

"The dream to be a doctor was born of his survivor's guilt from the crash with his parents so that he could save another child's parents and that they wouldn't have to go through that pain as he did, the dream that reign true in his heart is to have his princess by his side. You." I nodded recalling that Rei was one of the few people he ever told his story to since they held that losing parents thing together.

It was their one bond other than fighting together that they had. She may still have had a father but he was so busy with his political career that Rei truly believed that he forgot she existed. He had even stopped donating to the temple over a year ago despite the few letters that her grandfather sent to him letting him know that his contributions were quite helpful, "He has all of us, not just me." I tell her.

"True…but you're his other half. We're all family still but you're what he strives to get out of bed in the am for." It's funny how things turn out when you've been through what we've been through. I smile as she cracks one to, "He should have been able to prove to America that he's more than capable of being an amazing doctor." I say as she tells me, "He'll show them that when he graduates from Tokyo and becomes even better." We both laugh a bit at that as knowing Mamoru he'd pour his heart into his desired career field.

"Let's go…" she doesn't say another word, only looks to Mamoru's seat once more then to me before we walk out and back into the evening. The suns gone at this point and the only lights nearby are the ones left on by the investigation crew. I couldn't help but feel a tad of gratitude that Mamoru, despite his death in this to that he did make it back to me. I just couldn't help but feel the guilt that followed that I was in gratitude over his return when so many others didn't have that opportunity. They didn't have that chance to return.

I was upset with myself for thinking so selfishly yet I couldn't help but feel grateful that he came back. I couldn't. I felt worse though that this even happened. I hadn't had time to process this when Galaxia left to return the other star seeds. I hadn't thought about it since the plane hadn't been found. We just returned to whatever sense of normal life we could get. We worked on getting stronger and better as senshi but we didn't think about other prospects…till now and I was beginning to feel a sense of guilt for NOT thinking about this sooner.

Its then that I hear Mercury's computer buzzing off as she says, "I know why the plane went down." we all look to her, "Its why the authorities are saying 'engine problems' in the articles, this plane went down not because of engine problems but something that they can't explain, but I can." She looks up as she says this and throws a picture of the screen up to show us. The advances that she's put on the Mercury computer are amazing.

To view the images as 3-D visuals like a projector is not only creative but informative and visually stunning to see. However considering what we're looking at it was less visually stunning and making it more standoffish. Something that I think was necessary right now considering, "What happened?" I asked as she types in a few more commands and shows us the back to the front and the dimensions of the plane.

"From what we know of what Galaxia did she left after she retrieved Mamoru's star seed. She had no further business there…" she gestures towards the plane, "And it wasn't in her best interest to linger around." I couldn't stop myself from shutting my eyes briefly as I asked her, "So what caused the plane to crash?" I work to keep the edge out of my voice but even she notices my slight struggle.

She looks to me as I nod my head as she then explains, "It could have been moments later or possibly even up to ten minutes later, but this plane encountered another life form other than her. It struck the plane here." She points to it as we see where it encountered a massive hit that crushed the side of it. The dent was visible and definitely NOT mentioned in any online article that was circulating.

"That wasn't previously mentioned." Jupiter notes, "Definitely wasn't." now the girls were starting to become agitated and with good reason. Something else was out there and we had no clue of it. "The impact of the second 'entity' is was caused it to crash and this…" we all watch her take a swipe at the side of the plane she was next to and watch her rub her fingers together till we see the slightest of shimmer on her gloved fingers.

"Substance is what it left behind." We all lean in. "We can't really see it but the Mercury computer picked it up." we all walked forward to see it. It looked nearly invisible but with the slightest light reflections it was clearly there. "What is it?" Mars inquires as she hesitates to touch it herself, "From what I can tell so far is it's an oil based substance that isn't anywhere in my computers system." Now that made us a bit nervous and concerned.

Every substance on earth and other planets that we all came from were all in her computers database, so how is this stuff not? Where else could it be from? "It's definitely not from earth. My guess is whatever attacked this plane after Galaxia was done with it, clogged up all the ports, turbines and engines with this as it entered preventing the fuel injection from working and killing the motor pretty steadfast so that the aircraft was then forced to rely on the entity to keep it up in the air." this was strange to hear.

"So you're telling us that this thing, whatever it is, kept the plane afloat for a while AFTER it clogged up the engines." Mercury nodded to Mars query as she further said, "Considering it damaged the plane it had to do so. Especially to take the amount of energy from people that it did it couldn't do it in mere seconds while freefalling to the ground. Gravitational forces alone would have sent it all over the place and we don't know what kind of powers it has." She had very good points on this.

"Plus this wasn't a full on freefall." She gestures to us all around the wreckage. "Meaning what?" Jupiter asks her as she looks around, "This looks pretty wrecked up to me." she adds on, "Meaning this creature, whomever it was, kept the plane into a drift back towards earth. With its goo on the plane it wasn't caught by air force control to be seen or having emergency crews sent out to help." Now things were making more sense.

"As it drained people it got more powerful, and when it was done it let the plane freefall the rest of the way otherwise this crash site would be in mere pieces all over the place instead of what we're seeing now. There'd be hardly anything left from a full on crash from the original height." We were all stunned by this information as she lowered her head a bit, "I know it's not what everyone wants to hear but it's the facts as they are."

I sighed, "Your right Mercury…" letting her know its fine, we needed to know. She gets right back to her facts, "So unfortunately nothing that was set for emergency control could be activated to send out. Everything was blocked. There was no emergency signal so no one knew about the planes disappearance or crash." It prompts Venus to ask, "But what about the people waiting for their family and loved ones?" mercury looked up.

"Since the wreckage was covered in this goo, search and rescue couldn't locate it. It wouldn't have showed up on an aerial views, nor on any radar that any government has." This prompts Mars to ask, "But what about someone running into it? Physically." Mercury answers, "Glad you asked that, turns out that to the average human it would be literally invisible. So not just to sight but to touch as well."

This is surprising news, "We're only able to touch it now since we're not fully humans ourselves. They were only able to begin the investigation cause the goo dissipated enough to let them in." she says. "Are we gonna have to worry about what happens when the goo is examined by the investigators?" Venus asks, "At the rate it's disappearing at now that it's been exposed to our atmosphere long enough, I'd say that whatever samples they now have locked away in whatever air tight container they have will be gone in a few days."

Mercury's explanation gives us some comfort, "At least there won't be any UFO nuts out there making things difficult for us." Mars says, "Yeah that's the last thing we need if we're gonna do our jobs right and fight this out. I mean who knows what did this and who knows where their at." Jupiter says agreeing as we all think on that. Knowing this now we can't all but help to look around to see if we ourselves are now being watched.

"We're good." Mercury assures us after she does a quick preliminary search of the grounds with her computer. Nodding Jupiter then asks, "Question, so how are we able to know of it now? The goo is still here." It's a valid question to, "It appears to be activated by heat. Look." Mercury suggests as we watch the goo using her own body heat through the glove to give it life and make her finger appear to disappear before she wipes it back on the plane.

"But this plane has been sitting here for over a month." Venus notes as she carefully avoids the goo though she does look at the difference it makes. "Very true, it looks like its substance retains the heat for an extraordinary amount of time but since the earth air changes its temperature frequently it wasn't able to maintain its validity nor its original composition. In short the goo stopped working and is still disappearing." Again it was still good news.

We couldn't have the government coming down here and figuring out that otherworldly stuff actually happened. They weren't ready to handle what could actually happen…not yet anyways and perhaps not for a while. "Definitely foreign to earth as there is no material that holds this consistency, texture or shape nor that moves on its own like this." she explains as we all agree that we know nothing like that on earth.

That's when Venus's next question has all of us wondering, "How did this thing get in under our radar?" we look to Mercury, "We've never once had a blip of this on our detectors. They should have spotted this." even she's a bit puzzled by this development. She continues to type more into her computer as it hit me on what happened. I voice it out before I can think twice on it, "It didn't because it slipped in on the heels of Galaxia." Everyone looks to me trying to figure out how I came to this conclusion.

I look away though, "Whatever this new threat is, it slipped in just behind her and my guess is used that oil thing to mask itself so it could go on about its business without us or anyone knowing it was here." I hated that it got in undetected but it had happened and we hadn't even realized it. This is similar to what happened when the death busters came in. Un-detected and nearly destroyed us.

Jupiter then jumps in with, "That just begs another question, how did even Galaxia not set off the alarms?" before the girls can try to spout out an answer I reply, "Cause the system we have set up recognized her as a senshi still." Mercury seemed to get it first as she said, "She's right." I nod as Mars asks, "Even though she was festering with chaos inside of her?" I nod as she is astounded as the rest are.

"Regardless of what she was doing at the time it still saw her as one of us…and she is. I mean look at how many planets went out after her attacks on them. How many survived? How many of them had radars that didn't see her attack coming because they recognized her as a senshi?" I gently remind them as I notice Jupiter and Mars getting upset at the prospect of what we didn't think about on earlier.

Sailor Galaxia's devastation might have been temporary to the world at that time but had been very real to us for several months in fighting the soldiers that had been corrupted and killed themselves under her liege. So this was still pretty raw for us. A month later and we still were feeling emotional about what had happened. I don't even think the girls fully forgave her for what happened and I wasn't about to push it either.

It was why even though I said she was one of us, it didn't erase the damage caused during our war with her…or rather her war with us. "Think about it…" I get their attention again, "Sailor Tin Nyanko, Sailor Iron Mouse, all of the other soldiers that Galaxia had working for her, forced to work for her really…" I amend noting that they only did it due to the issues going on that were either caused by Galaxia or the fact that they felt they had no choice due to her presence and the power she already had.

"They're all sailor soldiers of their own worlds that were forced into servitude for her. It's why none of them really popped up on the radar. It only recognizes those with pure evil intent." The girls nodded just a bit, "It explains why we didn't notice it with Beryl. She was already on earth when she started her campaign to kill us for the crystal." Mercury noted, "Same thing with Mistress nine, she had already been on earth and was merely sleeping inside of Hotaru before being awakened." Mars added.

"Let's not forget that the dark moon clan came from the future, so there was no real detection on our radar as that was through a time portal they used." Jupiter jumps in as we all contemplate why the previous enemies didn't show up either. "And we didn't have it set up when Ann and Ali came in. We were still without our memories after our battle with Beryl." Noting this I hear Jupiter ask, "But Luna and Artemis were around. Why didn't they alert us? To Ann and Ali." She clarified to the group.

"Luna and Artemis hadn't any clue either. Their only real clue was an asteroid that fell here. However, they are just cats to, with powers yes but still cats nonetheless. Their limited in their powers just as much as we are to ours." She nods, "It's why she revived my memories as a senshi so I could continue to fight. Galaxia at the end of the day didn't show up till we were in the middle of a battle. Only then did she grace us with her presence." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at that.

"This, whomever, or whatever it is, used her as a 'shield' of sorts and blocked its entry into our world." Mercury looks to me, "Makes sense, it hide behind her energies so when she left the plane after taking what she wanted the entity took the rest of the passengers and drained what it wanted then left only a few survivors behind." The air felt thick with anger right now that we had towards it.

Reasonably so, yet we were also angry with ourselves for NOT having figured this out. "Those that are alive are still in a comatose state." Mars then asks, "How many survived?" Mercury looks at her computer, "At least 25 of the passengers made it out alive. Most are still out of it but there are a few that are awake now, but with no memory of what happened." I can't help but respond, "Typical."

Jupiter looks to me, "It needs to go on undetected so this 'entity' makes sure to cause amnesia on those that did survive so it can continue on undetected." That's when Mars asked a question we hadn't wanted to ask but needed to be asked, "How many didn't make it? Cause there were a lot of souls aboard that plane." I could see the heartbreak on Mercury's face, "One is to many in my book so let's just say more than one." However we say Mars face on it, her stubbornness to know the truth wasn't letting up, "How many Mercury?"

She shut the computer down. Mercury was rarely affected so to have her reacting this way meant the numbers were high even for her. "Over 200." She looked back up as she looked to me, "He was listed on there as well." I knew what that meant. Mamoru was originally on the list as a passenger, yet no body was obviously found. "I removed his name." I gulped and thanked her with my eyes.

She noticed and saw that I wanted to convey my gratitude since I couldn't speak right now. My emotions were in my throat. "Last thing we need is for a glitch to come up for him. He's been through enough." I nod as we all do, "And digital footprint is erased now to." She concludes as we give her a tiny smile that she isn't getting herself into trouble either. We didn't want her to deal with the fallout of helping a friend out.

"The problem is, as if all of this wasn't bad enough, we have NO idea where it's set up shop. Or who set up shop. What their intention is or if there are other accidents that have happened that this new enemy is behind that were not aware of. We need to investigate them and I can run an analysis on them to see if it's really an accident or not." I agree, "Definitely, but analyze first, we need to be sure before we go to these places." Can't go all 20 questions on someone without reason first.

"Another problem is we don't know where the new enemy is." Venus said which we all knew was true, bad but true. "We can use the software we have at central to do a scan of the whole city, the whole planet if need be to find it and we will find it." Venus assures us. "It'll take days for that to happen, possibly even weeks." Mercury admits but agrees. I look around and notice that the guards look to be getting roused up, "We better split." I motion as we all agree to meet up later on. I had a feeling this would be our biggest enemy to date.


	2. the end in the beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> an old photo leads to an intimate moment

The end in the beginning ch.2  
Rei POV  
Getting back from my business class was nice, don’t get me wrong I loved to learn more about the world of business, the different licensing, permits and all that, even the structure of how it all worked was a form of excitement to get into, yet sometimes even I needed a break from all of it and to decompress. The best method for that for me was some yoga followed by a meditation session in the fire chamber.  
After bending all over the place, getting into some positions that would make a gymnast wince at I was feeling better about it all. Business class was new and exciting but sometimes the numbers began to blur together rather than stay separated. So once the yoga is done with I know I’m ready to get into my robes for the fire. I change my attire once more so I can be more comfortable in front of the fire.  
I sat down and once settled I began to do my chants. By this point I was becoming very well connected with the sacred fires. The candles nearby even popped on when I entered the room simply by walking past them. I had a feeling my powers much like the others were advancing even more now and that, in my opinion, was good. We had all become more connected with our elemental powers since our time in fighting over the years, but even more so since our latest fight with Galaxia happened.  
We were training harder than before and did what we could to try to tap into a deeper connection to our powers. See if we could level up by being better trained rather than hoping to wing it as we did in the beginning. Even though it wasn’t too long ago, merely a few years, we had all been naïve at some point or another in our thinking and methods of how to beat the enemy. Galaxia proved that in a sense of her own.  
We wanted to do better so that when the next enemy came, not if but when, we would be not only prepared but wouldn’t be wiped out so damned easily as when we fought against fellow senshi Galaxia. I closed my eyes remembering that day. Swallowed the saliva in my throat as I focused myself. We were so un-prepared for that fight that I was actually ashamed to call myself the goddess of war.  
I was one of the inner senshi. We the inner senshi were taken out all too easily and never even actually truly fought against Galaxia. Not really. Having her power hit each of us, no time to dodge or duck was like having a bullet tear a hole right through us and being a death strike on the first hit alone. If this were one of Usagi’s video games we were level ten and Galaxia had been a level 50.  
The flames around me flickered higher in my anger of those thoughts. I couldn’t help but think about it though. Out of all the previous enemies we’ve had never once did a single strike take us out on moments flat. Even Beryl’s minions at the end took several strikes at us and even then we not only fought to the death but we won. We got Usagi to Beryl and she, along with our spiritual essences, beat her.  
We did it together as a team in the end. Galaxia, in my opinion wasn’t a true team effort. Usagi was left to face her with outside help. It should have been us, the way it it’s always been and we weren’t strong enough to get to that point. We were supposed to be strong senshi, triumph over evil, and yet in that head to head battle we were in, we lasted mere seconds and I hated it and to be honest I hated myself for it.  
We stood there ready for the strikes to come, thinking we needed to be out in front of it. I should have had Ami get out her computer to see what could have been done, or had Makoto and Minako hold off to the side and see how we could have strategized it better. Maybe if I had thought of something else to do, we might have been able to hit her from behind. Gotten her off course. Or as Haruka and Michiru did, tried an alternative method.  
It wasn’t usually my style to do something so bold as what they did BUT to find out that Galaxia didn’t HAVE a star seed was something HUGE to discover. WE should have discovered that, or something crucial earlier. Plus I hated to admit it but I wasn’t so sure that any of us inner senshi could have had the will power to overcome the power of the bracelets the way they did and pretend to turn all the while still being true to their mission and their love for not just each other but to our princess to.  
They shocked even Galaxia with their move and dare I say it earned a bit of respect from her on it. At least that was the impression gained. So, knowing how WE went down angered me. I could feel my powers making the flames go higher in the prayer room. I knew I had to simmer down but I was upset by this. Those power strikes were right in front of us to. They were so damned fast to. Sometimes I can still see them in my dreams.  
Like some bad weird PTSD or something. No other enemy gave me this feeling before. Sure I had prophetic dreams before, but that was a warning of what was to come. I didn’t get anything regarding what happened with Galaxia. No I just saw them coming at us. They were like golden bleary lights that took our very breath and life away. We didn’t see any of them coming and we should have, we should have ducked, dodged and moved Usagi out of the way though I know she would have dodged it to.  
I faltered a tad in my focus thinking about it but resumed my stance. Our instincts were good, but they needed to be better. We needed to be better, to be the best that I knew we could be, the ones that would eventually protect for a life duty Usagi and her family when she and Mamoru came to power. Those guardians were us and I fully intended for us to become those brave, bad ass, not to be messed with women that could hold up a barrier against those forces for such a long length of time.  
To hold such control and command over one’s own power that you could ensure the safety and security over your loved ones and have a shield up above them. We needed to achieve that. To be better, not just for the control over power though, no far from it, that was only one small aspect, not this was to be able to advance our powers and to do what was right and needed to protect the innocents out there better than before.  
That was something that I pushed for us to work on. Usagi and the other agreed that we needed to keep sharp and strong. Galaxia as far as I was concerned at this point was merely another enemy turned good in the long line of enemies that could be had. There were the enemies that we couldn’t save but they were too far gone that even Usagi allowed the silver crystal to purify the evil till there was none left.  
It just wound up being nothing in some cases. Beryl was reduced to nothing but dust at best, Wiseman and pharaoh 90 were the same way. No saving. So in this case, when we were taken out by Galaxia, when we fought her, unlike in previous battles where we had been through hell this lasted so little time that I knew our ends were eminent. The images of my grandfather and our friends went through my head.  
So when I looked to Usagi and saw her grief I knew she would use it, channel it to bring us all back. I just knew and that alone gave me hope that we would be back around to see those we loved and be around each other again. Cause I also knew there was no coming back from it, not this time, not without Usagi there to take care of it and I knew at that point when we returned that she had done it somehow.  
I saw our future Queen in her then and knew that despite any previous doubts or misgivings I had about her, she showed through in the end why she was the senshi of rebirth. So we worked, we trained hard and mastered our current powers and strove to work them in new ways so we could better them and ourselves. It was a work in progress, but it was working, and I knew we all felt better for it.  
Even Usagi mentioned how she felt more connected with her crystal since she started to train with it more often. So I made sure to keep up with my own training as each of us did individually as well as together as a group. It’s one of the reasons why I took up yoga to help me become more centered and focused as I did have anger in me still from the battle with Galaxia. It helped me to refocus my energies and redistributed my anger into something more productive like stronger fire readings.  
So as I focused on the fire and allowed myself to get lost in the meditation of it I could feel the flames growing hotter. My control was back in place as the other flames behind me got lower but hotter. This was usually a good sign that I was getting closer to something more. I whispered the words that brought me closer to meditation and locked my fingers into the right place for the symbols to pull up and stay trained.  
I saw the flame as I usually did. As I had for the last month. There hadn’t been any real activity. I watched everything that came through it for better perception. Then as I focused harder and pushed my limits even more than before and found that near otherworldly plain where I could feel the flames licking at my skin, I sensed something out there. I reached deeper into the flames, and felt them caressing my skin.  
I touched them as I saw an image appear. It was speckled at first. No face just an image. I repeated the words in my head, strengthening my connection as I saw the image getting stronger, “Show yourself.” I commanded into the flame. It showed the image clearer now. It’s near female in its appearance but the evil surrounding it is so strong I feel like my deeper connection is also allowing it to have access to me.  
I can feel it nearly choking me. I take deep inhaling breathes but it doesn’t do a lot of good. I made the decision to go in deeper and I was going to stick to it. I needed more information, besides I was already in it. I saw the figure reach out towards me but with it came evil that tried to circle around me. I used my senses to push it back but it was strong. The evil was practically dripping from it as I warned it, “You will not survive here if your intentions are malicious in nature.” I practically felt it smile as it said, “We shall see.”  
It was only then that I was pulled back out from my vision with it as I felt the flames drop down as I saw my grandfather pull me out. As much as I wanted to be irritated by him for it I was more thankful for it. That was way deeper than any meditation before. “Be careful my child…you were so deep that the flames were not only one with you but I could see the evil energies trying to surround you.” His warning was touching as I smiled.  
“Thanks grandpa. I guess I went a little deeper than intended.” I heed him, more so to get him to leave so he could be assured that I wouldn’t go deep like that again without at least someone else with me. He kissed the top of my head as he left out. I grabbed my communicator and sent a warning to all the girls on it. Even our guardian felines. Did a fire reading…be on the lookout for suspicious activity…something feels like it’s coming. I put the communicator down and shut everything off as I left the room.  
Usagi POV  
I had only been on my shift at the arcade for less than an hour and already I was feeling both happy that I was getting everything done, getting people taken care of and nearly overwhelmed that it was packed. Even with all three of us working this shift we were all busy as hell. Motoki was even getting into the back to help the line cook get more burgers and fries out while his sister and I got drinks and shakes to the customers.  
Those that were waiting for more time than they should have we worked our charm to engage them in idle chit chat to help the time go by faster so they wouldn’t complain. Only then did their meals start to arrive. So when the line cook was to go home for the next shift change I volunteered to go in the back and make the burgers and fries since Motoki looked like he was sweating bullets already.  
“Go ahead, anymore time back there and I’ll be cooked.” He muttered as he gave me the oldest orders. Putting a headband on I went around the back to the fryer and made sure to put on as many as possible especially remembering how many there were to make for everyone. Between beef, turkey, and chicken there was a LOT of meat to have on the grills and the heat times differed on them.  
Throwing a ton of fries into the boiling oil to be cooked didn’t help as the splatter was painful but I didn’t have a choice. Twenty minutes later and over 75% of everyone was served and only the new walk in customers hadn’t been. However by this point the next line cook came in for his shift and took over. I walked back out as Motoki thanked me, “Sorry about that, I didn’t know the cooks had a small twenty minute lag in the scheduling.” I smiled, “Its fine, I took it as a challenge that I won.” I tell him as I walk around the corner.  
As nice as it is to have a change-up I still like being out with the people, interacting with them and being on the move. Besides if I have to flip another burger I’ll perfect the Tuskino flip and my dad will want me to grill this coming summer. “Usagi if you want since majority are eating you can go on break. We’ve got this covered.” Before I can deny it saying I can go longer I spot an online article one of our regulars are looking at.  
It catches my eye as the screen is brightly lit up. Most of the time this stuff is nonsense to me as news coverage is usually edited to make it more dramatic or leaving certain things out so I didn’t pay it too much mind, but the article itself for once is concerning. I see the headline ‘flight to America finally found!’ the flight number that was in the article has been burned in my head since Mamoru left that fateful day for America. I remember wanting to make sure we arrived at the right gate.  
I nearly dropped my notepad as I swallow thickly and ask, “What website is that?” while trying to maintain my voice as the customer responds, “Terra News. Can you believe it?” He asks as he shows me as I nod in thanks, “Yeah that’s surely something.” I say and take Motoki up on that break offer only to go in the back and pull out my own phone and pull up the article. I spend the next ten minutes of my break not even caring about eating anything.  
My hunger melted away when I saw the headline. It brought me back to the day Mamoru left for America. When he gave me the ring that I still wore to this day and never took off. Well I took it off for when I baked with breads or pastries and dough, but I kept it hidden on me for safety reasons. When we had that last kiss before he left. When I sent him letter after letter in hopes of a response back when Chibi Chibi was in our lives and how I was in dismay when I found out the cold hard truth.  
When I found out Galaxia had killed him and took him from me…from all of us. I held back a sob forcing myself to remember that he was alive and well. I even went really quickly to read his latest few texts to me as he was in classes himself so I could breathe a little more at ease again. I read on in the article that it was found, not having even left Japan as investigators were on the scene and looking it over.  
It killed me that it hadn’t even LEFT Japan. I waved to his plane as he took off watching it through my fingers where my ring was. We hadn’t known that. For all we knew he was halfway across the sea. I stopped reading at that point letting that piece of information sink in. It wasn’t even out of our air space when it was attacked. He was attacked. All those passengers were attacked by her.  
How did we NOT know? I closed my eyes briefly, as I take a breather. My mind running wild with what I know now and what I can imagine happening back then. We had no idea that it had happened so close to home. I lost him sooner than I had thought I did. I saw him in those final moments. I took a look at where it was found and felt tears spring to life and begin to fall before I brushed them away.  
He hadn’t made it further than twenty minutes into the air, thirty max before they were all…I gasped as I was suddenly struck with an intense need. I didn’t know why but I HAD to see it. My gut was telling me to go find the plane. I had to see where I nearly lost my love for good. Plus, Rei’s mysterious message sent recently proved that perhaps there was something else out there. I knew this was a long shot and probably nothing more than cannon fodder, but this could be a lead into something, I just didn’t know what.  
I needed to follow up on it, and if it turned out to be nothing more than debris from Galaxia’s attack then at least I could finally put that day to peace behind me. Then again it would do so to allow everyone that was affected by the attack to have peace of mind and closure on the issue. I know that day still bothers Mamoru. He didn’t like to talk about it too much. Who would unless you needed to get it off your chest in a support group setting.  
I can only imagine how bad the memories would be for him. I only saw it from a third person perspective, to having been there…I mean I had my own struggles during his absence but learning of his death, back then it hadn’t been temporary for me. It had been very real, emotional, mental and raw as hell. I had just lost people that I love and care for, so to find that out had been heart breaking and gut wrenching to learn.  
Now I knew I needed to talk to him about more of what he remembered, but not until after I had taken a look at the wreckage myself. I just wasn’t sure if I should have him come along for this or if it would be re-traumatizing him with it. To see what he survived off from. Bad memories I knew would come with it. Yet perhaps knowing more about what happened after his death might give him a sense of closure to.  
I looked up in the article again on where it was found so I could get the girls over there later on this evening. I sent out a message to all of them and those who could make it, Minako, Ami, Makoto and Rei all agreed to come out and investigate ourselves. I sent a message out to Mamoru but I knew he’d be busy so I wasn’t expecting a quick response back. So I ignored that he didn’t text me back right away and went back to my job so I could refocus and do some more research later on.  
Besides, obsessing about it now wasn’t going to help me. It would distract me from my job and I couldn’t have that happen. I forced myself back to the customers that came in, ignored the lack of food in my stomach as I had lost my appetite and took down some more orders. All the while though that website and article was now stewing in the back of my mind waiting to be examined more thoroughly.  
It’s when I get off after work that I see a new article online about it since the page I was on had an error page and refreshed to a stupid ad all on its own. Annoying. So as I walked home I read that the majority of the people on board the plane were found dead from having their energy taken from them. As if their very life force was syphoned. Many enemies had done this before in the past.  
We had dealt with this many times before and had nearly become victims of it to a few times so I knew how this worked. The startling part was the draining appeared to happen BEFORE the plane crashed to the ground. That strikes me as odd cause it doesn’t line up with what Galaxia did. It wasn’t really her style so to speak. She didn’t bother with that. Something is definitely fishy about this now and I’m more certain now that we need to investigate this plane and figure out what’s missing.  
It’s after a short and to long of a dinner with my family that I’m able to sneak out of the house so I can join the girls to check out the plane. We all arrive there, transforming to ensure that we could get there as quickly as possible and to help evade any police there to avoid looking like we had something to do with it. Thankfully the crash site has been sectioned off to the mass public and it safe guarded.  
Only were able to get in and since it’s so late in the evening the teams that were investigating earlier are probably at their own labs if not at home by now so it’s only a few guards, a few police officers watching over it from out past the perimeter. Were thankfully not within their sights. “You can see where the crime lab hauled a section of it back with them for analysis.” Venus notices as she sees where a section was cut off manually.  
I walk inside of the wreckage and already I can feel it. The wave of fear and death in here, it’s palpable. Like the cries of those that did die are echoing in here. Their screams as they died feel like it’s on me now. I rub my arms as the chill slips in through me. The windows are mostly broken as the emptiness is chilling. The bodies of course have all been removed but still their cries are stuck in here.  
“I’m sorry.” I whimper brokenly. It’s then that I notice the seating numbers and find Mamoru’s on the left. I see where there’s a few dropped things here and there, mainly being the oxygen masks having dropped down in the event of an emergency. That’s when I see it. I pick up from his seat the ruined picture he had of Chibi Usa and myself. We were in his last thoughts before he went out to face her.  
A tear rolls down my cheek as I rub on the picture then take it with me. Placing it securely in my fuku as I wipe the tear away as Mars comes in, “I can feel it…so many lives.” I look to her as I can see how she’s taking it in. Feeling the depth of the souls lost aboard this flight despite the ones that were saved, or rather the ones that survived. “You can feel it to.” I say to her as she looks to me, her eyes become misty.  
Her gloved hand touches the dirtied head rest, “Yeah…a great evil boarded this plane and took many lives with it.” She then pulls out a scroll. “For them to find peace in the afterlife.” She starts to chant as I can feel it work. Nothing visually happens but we can both feel it. “I heard from Mercury once she tapped into the network for the investigation that there were survivors.” It’s a small cold comfort but at least it’s something to see I guess.  
It didn’t take away from what happened but at least Mars put the souls to rest and they wouldn’t become vengeful to the area. Already dealt with that once before, didn’t need it to happen again to anyone. That’s when Mars saw his seat, “He’s not coming?” she questioned as I sighed, “Couldn’t get ahold of him. He’s in classes all day today anyways.” I explain away his absence, “Understandable…how’s he doing?” she asks. I look to her and see the concerned expression of a sister asking about a friend and brother.  
Funny how just a few years ago she was trying to date him, only to realize she only wanted him cause I did and we competed without even realizing it. She wanted to be the best at everything and even though I was far from the best, since I got called into duty first she felt she had to be better than me. So when he came along she opted for a way to annoy me and be better only to realize that we didn’t need to compete, and they weren’t anything more than friends. She even admitted that they never even kissed.  
“Working through things still. The American university rejected his application and won’t be accepting another from him till next year so he’s going to stick with Tokyo University.” I tell her as she nods, “I think it’s best…for everyone but mostly him.” I look to her as she steps forward, “He was following one path of his dream but the truth is, deep down, his truest dream is to have you.” There were tears forming in her eyes.  
“The dream to be a doctor was born of his survivor’s guilt from the crash with his parents so that he could save another child’s parents and that they wouldn’t have to go through that pain as he did, the dream that reign true in his heart is to have his princess by his side. You.” I nodded recalling that Rei was one of the few people he ever told his story to since they held that losing parents thing together.  
It was their one bond other than fighting together that they had. She may still have had a father but he was so busy with his political career that Rei truly believed that he forgot she existed. He had even stopped donating to the temple over a year ago despite the few letters that her grandfather sent to him letting him know that his contributions were quite helpful, “He has all of us, not just me.” I tell her.  
“True…but you’re his other half. We’re all family still but you’re what he strives to get out of bed in the am for.” It’s funny how things turn out when you’ve been through what we’ve been through. I smile as she cracks one to, “He should have been able to prove to America that he’s more than capable of being an amazing doctor.” I say as she tells me, “He’ll show them that when he graduates from Tokyo and becomes even better.” We both laugh a bit at that as knowing Mamoru he’d pour his heart into his desired career field.  
“Let’s go…” she doesn’t say another word, only looks to Mamoru’s seat once more then to me before we walk out and back into the evening. The suns gone at this point and the only lights nearby are the ones left on by the investigation crew. I couldn’t help but feel a tad of gratitude that Mamoru, despite his death in this to that he did make it back to me. I just couldn’t help but feel the guilt that followed that I was in gratitude over his return when so many others didn’t have that opportunity. They didn’t have that chance to return.  
I was upset with myself for thinking so selfishly yet I couldn’t help but feel grateful that he came back. I couldn’t. I felt worse though that this even happened. I hadn’t had time to process this when Galaxia left to return the other star seeds. I hadn’t thought about it since the plane hadn’t been found. We just returned to whatever sense of normal life we could get. We worked on getting stronger and better as senshi but we didn’t think about other prospects…till now and I was beginning to feel a sense of guilt for NOT thinking about this sooner.  
Its then that I hear Mercury’s computer buzzing off as she says, “I know why the plane went down.” we all look to her, “Its why the authorities are saying ‘engine problems’ in the articles, this plane went down not because of engine problems but something that they can’t explain, but I can.” She looks up as she says this and throws a picture of the screen up to show us. The advances that she’s put on the Mercury computer are amazing.  
To view the images as 3-D visuals like a projector is not only creative but informative and visually stunning to see. However considering what we’re looking at it was less visually stunning and making it more standoffish. Something that I think was necessary right now considering, “What happened?” I asked as she types in a few more commands and shows us the back to the front and the dimensions of the plane.  
“From what we know of what Galaxia did she left after she retrieved Mamoru’s star seed. She had no further business there…” she gestures towards the plane, “And it wasn’t in her best interest to linger around.” I couldn’t stop myself from shutting my eyes briefly as I asked her, “So what caused the plane to crash?” I work to keep the edge out of my voice but even she notices my slight struggle.  
She looks to me as I nod my head as she then explains, “It could have been moments later or possibly even up to ten minutes later, but this plane encountered another life form other than her. It struck the plane here.” She points to it as we see where it encountered a massive hit that crushed the side of it. The dent was visible and definitely NOT mentioned in any online article that was circulating.  
“That wasn’t previously mentioned.” Jupiter notes, “Definitely wasn’t.” now the girls were starting to become agitated and with good reason. Something else was out there and we had no clue of it. “The impact of the second ‘entity’ is was caused it to crash and this…” we all watch her take a swipe at the side of the plane she was next to and watch her rub her fingers together till we see the slightest of shimmer on her gloved fingers.  
“Substance is what it left behind.” We all lean in. “We can’t really see it but the Mercury computer picked it up.” we all walked forward to see it. It looked nearly invisible but with the slightest light reflections it was clearly there. “What is it?” Mars inquires as she hesitates to touch it herself, “From what I can tell so far is it’s an oil based substance that isn’t anywhere in my computers system.” Now that made us a bit nervous and concerned.  
Every substance on earth and other planets that we all came from were all in her computers database, so how is this stuff not? Where else could it be from? “It’s definitely not from earth. My guess is whatever attacked this plane after Galaxia was done with it, clogged up all the ports, turbines and engines with this as it entered preventing the fuel injection from working and killing the motor pretty steadfast so that the aircraft was then forced to rely on the entity to keep it up in the air.” this was strange to hear.  
“So you’re telling us that this thing, whatever it is, kept the plane afloat for a while AFTER it clogged up the engines.” Mercury nodded to Mars query as she further said, “Considering it damaged the plane it had to do so. Especially to take the amount of energy from people that it did it couldn’t do it in mere seconds while freefalling to the ground. Gravitational forces alone would have sent it all over the place and we don’t know what kind of powers it has.” She had very good points on this.  
“Plus this wasn’t a full on freefall.” She gestures to us all around the wreckage. “Meaning what?” Jupiter asks her as she looks around, “This looks pretty wrecked up to me.” she adds on, “Meaning this creature, whomever it was, kept the plane into a drift back towards earth. With its goo on the plane it wasn’t caught by air force control to be seen or having emergency crews sent out to help.” Now things were making more sense.  
“As it drained people it got more powerful, and when it was done it let the plane freefall the rest of the way otherwise this crash site would be in mere pieces all over the place instead of what we’re seeing now. There’d be hardly anything left from a full on crash from the original height.” We were all stunned by this information as she lowered her head a bit, “I know it’s not what everyone wants to hear but it’s the facts as they are.”  
I sighed, “Your right Mercury…” letting her know its fine, we needed to know. She gets right back to her facts, “So unfortunately nothing that was set for emergency control could be activated to send out. Everything was blocked. There was no emergency signal so no one knew about the planes disappearance or crash.” It prompts Venus to ask, “But what about the people waiting for their family and loved ones?” mercury looked up.  
“Since the wreckage was covered in this goo, search and rescue couldn’t locate it. It wouldn’t have showed up on an aerial views, nor on any radar that any government has.” This prompts Mars to ask, “But what about someone running into it? Physically.” Mercury answers, “Glad you asked that, turns out that to the average human it would be literally invisible. So not just to sight but to touch as well.”  
This is surprising news, “We’re only able to touch it now since we’re not fully humans ourselves. They were only able to begin the investigation cause the goo dissipated enough to let them in.” she says. “Are we gonna have to worry about what happens when the goo is examined by the investigators?” Venus asks, “At the rate it’s disappearing at now that it’s been exposed to our atmosphere long enough, I’d say that whatever samples they now have locked away in whatever air tight container they have will be gone in a few days.”  
Mercury’s explanation gives us some comfort, “At least there won’t be any UFO nuts out there making things difficult for us.” Mars says, “Yeah that’s the last thing we need if we’re gonna do our jobs right and fight this out. I mean who knows what did this and who knows where their at.” Jupiter says agreeing as we all think on that. Knowing this now we can’t all but help to look around to see if we ourselves are now being watched.  
“We’re good.” Mercury assures us after she does a quick preliminary search of the grounds with her computer. Nodding Jupiter then asks, “Question, so how are we able to know of it now? The goo is still here.” It’s a valid question to, “It appears to be activated by heat. Look.” Mercury suggests as we watch the goo using her own body heat through the glove to give it life and make her finger appear to disappear before she wipes it back on the plane.  
“But this plane has been sitting here for over a month.” Venus notes as she carefully avoids the goo though she does look at the difference it makes. “Very true, it looks like its substance retains the heat for an extraordinary amount of time but since the earth air changes its temperature frequently it wasn’t able to maintain its validity nor its original composition. In short the goo stopped working and is still disappearing.” Again it was still good news.  
We couldn’t have the government coming down here and figuring out that otherworldly stuff actually happened. They weren’t ready to handle what could actually happen…not yet anyways and perhaps not for a while. “Definitely foreign to earth as there is no material that holds this consistency, texture or shape nor that moves on its own like this.” she explains as we all agree that we know nothing like that on earth.  
That’s when Venus’s next question has all of us wondering, “How did this thing get in under our radar?” we look to Mercury, “We’ve never once had a blip of this on our detectors. They should have spotted this.” even she’s a bit puzzled by this development. She continues to type more into her computer as it hit me on what happened. I voice it out before I can think twice on it, “It didn’t because it slipped in on the heels of Galaxia.” Everyone looks to me trying to figure out how I came to this conclusion.  
I look away though, “Whatever this new threat is, it slipped in just behind her and my guess is used that oil thing to mask itself so it could go on about its business without us or anyone knowing it was here.” I hated that it got in undetected but it had happened and we hadn’t even realized it. This is similar to what happened when the death busters came in. Un-detected and nearly destroyed us.  
Jupiter then jumps in with, “That just begs another question, how did even Galaxia not set off the alarms?” before the girls can try to spout out an answer I reply, “Cause the system we have set up recognized her as a senshi still.” Mercury seemed to get it first as she said, “She’s right.” I nod as Mars asks, “Even though she was festering with chaos inside of her?” I nod as she is astounded as the rest are.  
“Regardless of what she was doing at the time it still saw her as one of us…and she is. I mean look at how many planets went out after her attacks on them. How many survived? How many of them had radars that didn’t see her attack coming because they recognized her as a senshi?” I gently remind them as I notice Jupiter and Mars getting upset at the prospect of what we didn’t think about on earlier.  
Sailor Galaxia’s devastation might have been temporary to the world at that time but had been very real to us for several months in fighting the soldiers that had been corrupted and killed themselves under her liege. So this was still pretty raw for us. A month later and we still were feeling emotional about what had happened. I don’t even think the girls fully forgave her for what happened and I wasn’t about to push it either.  
It was why even though I said she was one of us, it didn’t erase the damage caused during our war with her…or rather her war with us. “Think about it…” I get their attention again, “Sailor Tin Nyanko, Sailor Iron Mouse, all of the other soldiers that Galaxia had working for her, forced to work for her really…” I amend noting that they only did it due to the issues going on that were either caused by Galaxia or the fact that they felt they had no choice due to her presence and the power she already had.  
“They’re all sailor soldiers of their own worlds that were forced into servitude for her. It’s why none of them really popped up on the radar. It only recognizes those with pure evil intent.” The girls nodded just a bit, “It explains why we didn’t notice it with Beryl. She was already on earth when she started her campaign to kill us for the crystal.” Mercury noted, “Same thing with Mistress nine, she had already been on earth and was merely sleeping inside of Hotaru before being awakened.” Mars added.  
“Let’s not forget that the dark moon clan came from the future, so there was no real detection on our radar as that was through a time portal they used.” Jupiter jumps in as we all contemplate why the previous enemies didn’t show up either. “And we didn’t have it set up when Ann and Ali came in. We were still without our memories after our battle with Beryl.” Noting this I hear Jupiter ask, “But Luna and Artemis were around. Why didn’t they alert us? To Ann and Ali.” She clarified to the group.  
“Luna and Artemis hadn’t any clue either. Their only real clue was an asteroid that fell here. However, they are just cats to, with powers yes but still cats nonetheless. Their limited in their powers just as much as we are to ours.” She nods, “It’s why she revived my memories as a senshi so I could continue to fight. Galaxia at the end of the day didn’t show up till we were in the middle of a battle. Only then did she grace us with her presence.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at that.  
“This, whomever, or whatever it is, used her as a ‘shield’ of sorts and blocked its entry into our world.” Mercury looks to me, “Makes sense, it hide behind her energies so when she left the plane after taking what she wanted the entity took the rest of the passengers and drained what it wanted then left only a few survivors behind.” The air felt thick with anger right now that we had towards it.  
Reasonably so, yet we were also angry with ourselves for NOT having figured this out. “Those that are alive are still in a comatose state.” Mars then asks, “How many survived?” Mercury looks at her computer, “At least 25 of the passengers made it out alive. Most are still out of it but there are a few that are awake now, but with no memory of what happened.” I can’t help but respond, “Typical.”  
Jupiter looks to me, “It needs to go on undetected so this ‘entity’ makes sure to cause amnesia on those that did survive so it can continue on undetected.” That’s when Mars asked a question we hadn’t wanted to ask but needed to be asked, “How many didn’t make it? Cause there were a lot of souls aboard that plane.” I could see the heartbreak on Mercury’s face, “One is to many in my book so let’s just say more than one.” However we say Mars face on it, her stubbornness to know the truth wasn’t letting up, “How many Mercury?”  
She shut the computer down. Mercury was rarely affected so to have her reacting this way meant the numbers were high even for her. “Over 200.” She looked back up as she looked to me, “He was listed on there as well.” I knew what that meant. Mamoru was originally on the list as a passenger, yet no body was obviously found. “I removed his name.” I gulped and thanked her with my eyes.  
She noticed and saw that I wanted to convey my gratitude since I couldn’t speak right now. My emotions were in my throat. “Last thing we need is for a glitch to come up for him. He’s been through enough.” I nod as we all do, “And digital footprint is erased now to.” She concludes as we give her a tiny smile that she isn’t getting herself into trouble either. We didn’t want her to deal with the fallout of helping a friend out.  
“The problem is, as if all of this wasn’t bad enough, we have NO idea where it’s set up shop. Or who set up shop. What their intention is or if there are other accidents that have happened that this new enemy is behind that were not aware of. We need to investigate them and I can run an analysis on them to see if it’s really an accident or not.” I agree, “Definitely, but analyze first, we need to be sure before we go to these places.” Can’t go all 20 questions on someone without reason first.  
“Another problem is we don’t know where the new enemy is.” Venus said which we all knew was true, bad but true. “We can use the software we have at central to do a scan of the whole city, the whole planet if need be to find it and we will find it.” Venus assures us. “It’ll take days for that to happen, possibly even weeks.” Mercury admits but agrees. I look around and notice that the guards look to be getting roused up, “We better split.” I motion as we all agree to meet up later on. I had a feeling this would be our biggest enemy to date.


	3. an old photo leads to an intimate moment

The end in the beginning ch.3  
Usagi POV  
As I leave out of school, I’m reminded to go to Mamoru’s afterwards so I can fill him in on what the girls and I found out. He didn’t respond to me yesterday till way later on with a message that he’d been in classes all day and stuck in a library basement yesterday with absolutely no signal since it was underground. His phone was nearly dead, on barely two percent, when he left. That was just from the battery getting drained looking for signal continuously…and that was AFTER two restarts.  
Once he read my text he texted me back once I got in last night and asked me to come over today so we could talk about what was discovered as this obviously wasn’t a phone conversation or a texting conversation to be had. I used my key to get into his place and found it to be feeling dreary. I could feel his dimmed-out mood from over here. I pulled my flats off and slipped on my house-slippers as I ventured in.  
Walking in I saw him sitting on his couch, appearing unfocused despite the obvious attempt he had to read the thick text book sitting in his lap, only to take a sip of what I could only guess judging by the bottle on the coffee table was bourbon. Mamoru wasn’t one for hard liquors, so I knew my news, as little as it was had to have upset him a bit. Instead of calling out to him I went up and put my hand on his shoulder.  
He didn’t even seem startled by my presence, a testament to how close our bond had come by now. We could feel each other’s presence with such ease that we didn’t even bother, obviously, to announce ourselves. We just knew when the other was there. I was grateful for this step in our relationship, it made me feel like we were closer and therefore allowed him and showed him that we not only were closer but that we were stronger.  
He then put his left hand on mine and held it for a moment as he moved to push the book off and pulled my hand towards him. I walked forward the few extra steps and let him put me into his lap with ease. The book now lay forgotten on the floor as he held me tightly in his grasp. We held onto each other like that for what seemed like forever. My arms wrapped around him as his were around me. Neither of us spoke a word as we sat in silence.  
Eventually though as all things must happen, the silence was broken. “What did you find out?” the question was asked through a tired and tight voice as if he didn’t want to know but needed to know what happened. I told him everything and I mean everything that the senshi and I had discussed. He listened with bated breath as I filled him in on all of it, “Remind me to thank Ami to for that.” Regarding removing him off the ‘deceased list’.  
“I will.” Only then did he let me up and that was only so he could get me a cup of tea, chamomile. It certain did feel soothing right now as I sat back on his couch, curled up into his side as he took a small sip of the liquor before pushing it away from him and getting a cup of tea for himself now. I think he knew in the end that his answers didn’t lie in a bottle, at least tea was more soothing and didn’t impair your judgement.  
Then as if just recalling it I pulled the photo out of my school shirt and gave it to him, “I thought you may want it back.” I offered as I handed it to him. He took it only to cover his mouth and tear up. I instantly felt bad fearing that I brought up a bad memory for him, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you upset.” I tell him as I go to comfort him. He pushes me to put the cup down as he pulls me into his embrace once more.  
“I’m not upset with you Usako, I’m glad you have it I just…I was holding that before she struck the plane.” I held him tighter as he spoke before he finally loosened up enough to talk, “I felt outmatched by her. I hated it. I hated not being able to fight against a worthy opponent for more than a few minutes…if that.” he admitted. His anger was palpable. He after all hadn’t lasted long in the fight with her.  
However, he had to see the why of it instead of taking it to heart. He had to know that he was outmatched for a reason and nothing could have changed what happened that fateful day. Well one thing would have changed, him not being on it would have been a change, but the fighting and everything else would have been the same. Only difference would have been he’d have been alive and by my side.  
Question is would I have lost him by my side as I had before a few occasions when he died in my arms, though obviously he was able to be brought back to me, or would he have lasted till the end as the Starlight’s did? It made a difference to me but in the scheme of things that was a selfish thought for me to have. I took his face into my hands as I pulled him over to look at me, “Listen to me Mamo – chan…” he finally met my eyes.  
“What happened was you went up against a battle-hardened warrior that had been to many planets long before she got here.” I began so he could get that there was nothing more he could have done. “She had had advanced training to which we don’t know how far back it goes.” He seemed to acknowledge that, “I supposed there’s a point in there.” he admits, “She was incredibly strong, not just physically strong but power wise strong.” Then the thought of the girls being hit hits me.  
“Strong enough to kill the inners in a single blow.” I tell him, my voice low as I pause myself now. He held me tighter, “You should NOT have had to deal with that.” He tells me, “Nor should you have had to deal with her on your own. Not when you were 10,000 miles up.” I sniffle as he arches his brow, “Well actually we weren’t at 10,000…” he looks to my ‘does the exact mileage up really matter right now?’ face and shuts up.  
“She was strong enough to push me to my limits and rival me in a way that I never had been before.” I took his hand and placed it over my heart, “What got me through it was the hope that if I got her to see the light, to let it in that I could maybe….just MAYBE get you all back. You’re my heart Mamo – chan.” I couldn’t help my own tears now, “So yeah she beat you…” I said to him, retaining my composure.  
“She beat a lot of us. Think about this though. You went up against her, this powerful soldier of destruction.” I made sure my voice was firm, so he knew the seriousness and how strongly I felt about it. I fully believed in what he could do but I also knew he was much like the rest of us, had his limitations of what he could handle to. He needed to learn accept that as we had to as well and not think that he should have won the battle.  
At least not still. Once anyone gets then chance to grasp onto how outmatched they are after a battle you regroup and see what the weak points were that you had and then strengthen them as were currently doing now. As we usually did after an enemy came after us. This time though it felt like Mamoru was taking this a little bit more personally and while I did admit we were all still feeling pretty raw from the events that happened we were all together and all still alive and able to be stronger for it.  
I tried to strive forward though and show him that while yes that battle wasn’t won, it was a learning experience to be had. It was for all of us, “You went up against her one on one, not knowing who she was, or how powerful she was, on a plane in the middle of the friggin’ sky.” Pointing out to him what odds he had against him that fateful day. I know we had talked about things a bit of what happened but never to this depth.  
It was still hard for him to even talk about. Hard for us both to talk about if I were to be honest with myself. We just jumped into life again and didn’t really address things as we should have and for that I regretted it. “You had no backup and over 200 people on a plane to think about the lives of. You did what you could with what you had. None of us at the time had any type of training as she did.” he nodded.  
“None of us have been to any other planets other than our birthright planets. She’s been to who knows how many in her time seeing and learning their methods and ways of training. We don’t even know how long she’s been a senshi before us, or how old she is. She could have hit her maturity age before we even met her and was at full power whereas were still growing into our powers.” I tell him as I begin to theorize myself now that I think about it.  
“Which also potentially means that she might have awakened as a senshi much earlier than any of us. Years prior even.” I notice he seems less upset than before, “Okay valid points.” He admits as he rubs the slight five o’clock shadow forming on his face as he intakes all of this in. A form of accepting what he didn’t have control over which were the variables of who the enemy was and how much more powerful she was than the previous enemies we’ve faced before that while were powerful didn’t do the damage that she had.  
I leaned my head towards his as touched our foreheads together as I caressed the stubble on his cheek. He turns his head slightly to kiss the inside of my palm. A soothing intimate action that so small yet so meaningful. I’m glad he kept the stubble. It’s something I’ve told him recently that I find attractive on him. His voice is low since were so close as he says, “So basically nothing about that day would have changed.” I see that he’s trying to rationalize this internally for his own peace of mind.  
“There’s no way to truly tell for certain if I would have won that day or not since we know so little about who she is or where she came from.” I tread lightly here, “I don’t think it would have been a matter of winning Mamo – chan…” I say as I conclude with, “I think you might have survived but the moment she hit ANYONE with those bracelets, the power within them would have taken your star seed.” It’s a cold hard fact to face.  
“She took out Rei, Minako, Ami and Makoto in single hits. All powerful senshi, yet one hit each by her bracelets as you were. Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna, Hotaru, all of them strong warriors, all in a single strike with the bracelets.” I wanted him to know that he might have lasted longer in battle, but eventually that with just one hit with those things and he would still have been killed as he was on the plane that day. He sighed, “Right…I guess I felt like I should have been better than what I was.”  
“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe our fights with her would have last as long as they did had we actually been better prepared for someone of her caliber.” I say as he parts our foreheads to see what I mean, “We had had many enemies before her but none that got under our skin as she did.” I saw the realization begin to dawn on him, “She knew how powerful she was and probably had an idea on how powerful we were.” Not a true idea but one, nonetheless.  
“However, her arrogance is what was her Achilles heel ultimately. She felt she was so damn good at what she could do that she didn’t think about the bond we all shared that came back and bite her in the ass at the end of the day. Remember what we found out afterwards. She grew up on a desolate alone planet and knew next to nothing about bonds of love and friendship.” He realized this as I continued on.  
“Her childhood and turning into a senshi turned her into a formidable warrior BUT her lack of connection and human growth prevented her from seeing what we had that she didn’t. Even with those that were under her rule didn’t love her as we love and care for another. For us it was a team effort till the end, and you were a big part of that team. She treated her fallen senshi as expendable.” I tell him.  
“I mean her way of getting to us was to bring us down. Remember she did send Nehelania back to us as a distraction and to activate Hotaru’s star crystal so she could steal it.” memories of that event resurfaced. “She told me about your death right before we went into battle with her and right after I had lost the girls. The outer senshi were still in a command room. Rei was right in front of me. It completely threw me off balance.”  
I still hated that it had happened, I felt off balanced, I felt my emotions running a mile a minute, I felt guilt that there could have been another way to handle it that I didn’t foresee, I felt sorrow and sadness that this was perhaps the ONE time that they might NOT come back, I felt anger at Galaxia for doing this when she was another senshi to and wanted justice for what she did, but I also wanted to save her to as I knew it in my soul that she was savable.  
“She was a formidable foe, but we still took her down and we still won, and even saved her.” I tell him as he puts his hands over mine and says, “We may have been there in spirit form my love, we may have been in your heart and your mind. We may have been what motivated you in the end other than saving her, but in the end it was your belief in what could happen and your gut instinct to know that the way to save us was to save her that won.”  
He then kissed me deeply, “Your love…” he kissed me again, “Your devotion…” another kiss, “Your commitment and passion…” another kiss, “You’re moral beliefs and your gut instincts…” another more passionate kiss this time, “And your heart…” he touched my heart over my shirt and pressed down just enough to feel the increasing beat of it. “Your big, beautiful heart is what saved us.” Before I can try to say another more, he kisses me into forgetting anything else to talk to him about as he pulls me into his lap.  
At least he’s caught up now because right now I can’t think of anything else to say as I drown in his kisses. He pushed the items off the coffee table and sets me down on it. The smooth surface is chilly but to my heated skin it’s actually a nice comparison. I lay down on it as he kneels over me, pushes my legs apart and pushes my skirt up over my legs till its exposing my panties. I can feel his breath on my legs as he teases me with his fingers dancing near my sweet spot, “So intoxicating…” he breaths out.  
I can’t help but moan at the thought of him there as I further widen up my legs only to have him push them together so he can reach up to my waist and pull my panties down. I lift my rear so he can have access to take them off the rest of the way. Before I know it, my mind is drowning in pleasing sensations as he begins to lick me and suck on my quivering heat. The first time he did this I was embarrassed but happily pleased.  
Now that I’ve gotten past a certain level of shyness, I don’t get that way, not so much anyways. I just never knew he could find me so…delicious. The way he eats at me, licks at me, and pumps his fingers into me makes me feel like the most desired woman in the world. Like there is no other that he could ever want. Any doubts that ever plagued me about us before from enemies that poked fun at my less than large breasts to classmates who would look at us and ask, ‘why her?’ with their eyes fell away.  
Especially when his head was between my legs and his tongue was gorging on me. He created this vibrating motion in my throat that made me whimper for more as I reached down and pulled him up. He was driving me crazy doing that. I met his lips as I tasted myself on him as he pressed his length against me, “You drive me crazy with desire Usako…” he tells me as he trails a fiery path down my neck.  
My shirt gets pushed up and off, out of the way of his persistent fingers before he unhooks and tosses my bra to the side as well. His hands grasp onto my breasts as he massages them, teasing my nipples as I moan for more. His waist is now between my legs as I pull him in wanting all of him, “Please.” I call out to him. When he envelops a breast into my mouth then the other seconds later, I arch my back wanting to feel him.  
It’s mere moments later when he shoves off his own shirt and unbuckles himself as he rips open a condom packet and puts it on himself. He slips in with minimal effort, though his package itself is huge and takes a moment to adjust to. Sometimes I nearly forget how large he is. Came to find out one of the other reasons why he rarely dated before me was because women got skittish around his size.  
Afraid it would hurt them, so he rarely dated after the few sexual encounters he had. I on the other hand relished the feeling of him in me and took all of him in. so when he sunk himself all the way inside, we both stopped and enjoyed the moment. Took in the feeling of my walls caressing his length as he held himself above me. His corded muscular arms flexing around me as I caressed and gripped onto them.  
There was just something about holding onto him that made me feel not only secure and safe but also aroused to. He just had that effect on me. He pushed himself in and out a few times, slowly as he normally started out. Wanting to enjoy the pace before he went mad in me. Truthfully though I loved it when he lost it over me. There was such a flaming desire in his eyes, he made me feel like I was the only one who could arouse him to a fevered pitch like this. That I was the only one who would or could make him lose control as I did.  
Especially as I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him down as he pushed in making him go even deeper into my crevice. He reached down and grabbed onto my rear, pulling me in for a hard thrust while maintaining a slow rhythm. I flung my head back when I felt him hitting that spot inside of me that made me feel more wetness coming out. A loud moan erupted from my lips as I clenched down around his length.  
I heard and practically felt his own growl at the action to as he pushed in harder than before. I guess he got that I wanted to feel more of him. “You drive me crazy with desire to…” I coyly tell him as I clench purposely hard around him and watch as he grunts and twists his form over me, “Usa!” he yelps in pleasure filled agony. I can feel his cock inside of me, begging for release though from me or to cum at his command I wasn’t sure.  
I eventually had to release him though and saw the look of relief enter his face. For a moment I thought maybe I had put too much pressure on him and hurt him even. Before I could get to concerned though I saw the look of unadulterated need, passion and want hit him hard as his eyes even darkened up. “Mamo…” I nearly asked yet also said ‘please?!’ at the same time. His eyes pierced mine as he said, “You’re not leaving here anytime soon.”  
It was a promise of pleasurable dark things to come. The ones that we did to each other that I never even told the girls about. The ones that were meant for us and us alone. “Good, cause I wasn’t planning on leaving anytime soon.” I retort in the sexiest voice I can manage which right now isn’t hard at all. He held my hands up over my head and pushed one of my legs up over his shoulder as he pushes himself in.  
The pace quickens before I can formulate a thought fragment and he continues down this path of heat and passion. The rhythm is fast and furious, almost punishing in a glorious rhythm that makes us both call out for more as the depth he reaches is enough to hit that special secret spot so frequently I can feel my orgasm building up already. I didn’t even know what I was repeating as I just chanted whatever I could to get him to never stop.  
I’m fairly certain I just called him a god or something at one point as I grip onto him and feel my orgasm beginning. I can feel it racing through me like electricity. Once it hits me full on my body locks up. Like it froze around him. He manages to smash his lower hand into mine a few more times, deep grinding strokes that make me glad that no other woman could handle him cause my kami is he incredible.  
Just as he ready to cum himself I feel the orgasm surge up and take over, coating him from me and trapping his now fully sunken in cock into my quivering heat. He’s pressed so intimately to me that we could have passed as a one-piece sculpted art form. We were locked together as his orgasm slammed into him. I felt the liquid heat that spoke of his right when he shouted out loud enough to drown out my own scream of pleasure.  
We held onto each other with purpose as we slowly came down off of that high and finally after several long minutes allowed ourselves to pull apart. I was definitely a bit winded as he kneeled back, took a breath and picked me up. He carried me bridal style into his bedroom and laid me on the bed as he slipped in behind me. He seemed content to wanting to cuddle up against me as he wrapped his arms around me from behind and as we lay there content and naked, I couldn’t help but be lured into slumber.  
Mamoru POV  
I watched her lay down on the bed, sleeping curled up in my arms as I caressed her soft form. It soothed her and myself as I looked from her to the ceiling then out at the night sky. Her pert breasts gleamed in the light that was around as I watched her breathing in and out. The steady in and out let me know she was passed out from our hours of love making. She’d been out for a few hours now and while I’d gotten at least two hours of sleep in I woke up shortly afterwards unable to put off thinking about what we discussed any longer.  
So, I’d been up for at least an hour just laying here and enjoying the feeling of her next to me as I tried to process all of what she’d told me and what I was feeling having been on the plane before it struck the ground. I touched her soft supple skin, a mental and physical reminder that I was actually here and with her. That I wasn't still dead and merely hoping and pleading to be back in her arms one last time.  
Imploring with whomever could hear me to let me hold her one last time. Sometimes I would simply touch her, caress and hold her tightly, in public view or not I didn’t care, to make sure that I wasn't dreaming, that I wasn't still dead. That I was truly and really back here with her and those that we loved like family. Sometimes I’d remember that we’d had enemies that could put us in that state before.  
I was no stranger to it as unfortunate as that was. Granted neither was Usagi or the others at some point or another but still, it didn’t stop me from feeling as I did. That I wasn’t living a dream world controlled by someone with a twisted sense of wanting to see me suffer for something I did to them. Either by defying them by still living or by not giving up hope of having my love back in my arms.  
Not that being here was suffering, far from it. I was grateful for each day I got to be back with her. I reveled in the time that I got to be with her and enjoy our moments together, enjoy life with her. It was the only time I felt true joy and that belonging that I used to only get from having my friend and brother Motoki around, or being in college now. I knew in my heart that she was where I belonged.  
I knew she felt the same towards me. I could feel it through our link that was growing stronger and more powerful the closer we got. I could only imagine how it would be in the future when we took our places in power, whenever that was. We were in no hurry for that though, not even close. Thankfully it was still very far off from now and what I wanted to focus on was what was tangibly in front of us.  
Like what we were dealing with now, this potential new threat made me feel like this peace we were experiencing would be gone soon and a new fight would begin. Thinking about that I took quick stock and scan of the room to make sure that the shadows that were beginning to play with me were just that, shadows in the night. I admonished myself for letting my imagination begin to run wild.  
Sometimes I feared that wherever I had been dead, some on the inside who had been there longer and who had learned how to use their energy called it a cauldron, that perhaps the guardian of those star seeds, our souls, got bored at times and wanted to play a cruel trick on us or even on just me, by making us or myself think that we were back with our loved ones back on earth or wherever they came from.  
Make us think that so that we would become happy and complacent and wouldn’t know that we were really just being toyed with for their amusement. That we we're been feed on for our energy and we were really trapped in there. Why would this have crossed my mind you ask, cause sometimes powerful people got bored and wanted to be entertained and were unable to go and wreck-havoc elsewhere so they played with us or myself instead.  
Or another theory that I had was that I was suffering for my failures in life and was being tortured for that. Hell I remember at first thinking that Galaxia had trapped me in her personal hell where she wanted me to suffer by letting me see the rest of what she was doing, seeing what I could have saved and what I was unable to stop from happening while being trapped. When I found I could feel no physical pain, only my own emotional and mental anguish I realized then that I was in the cauldron.  
I was suffering from my own paranoia and delusions while in this place of peace. Galaxia while yes, she held our star seeds and took many of them, she didn’t want to hurt them as they were essentially pure energy. She wanted to keep them safe. We powered her to continue her fighting against my love…her enemies. Still I suffered, nonetheless. For the first week after I was back, I was constantly mentally battling myself.  
Wondering if this was reality. Wondering if Usagi had actually saved us all or if she too had been claimed and the senshi of destruction was playing with us both in this by using her powers to torture us both mentally and emotionally. Its why in the beginning I had to be physically connected with Usagi so much. Yes I love her and yes I wanted to be connected with her anyways it was just more persistent in the beginning due to how I felt about where I had been and what I felt like I brought back with me.  
However, all I had to do was touch her to know that this was real. That I was deluding myself with this as a reality. It was reality. Usagi had won and we all came back thanks to her. I owed her my life ten times over and I was never going to let her go again. There was no force on earth that could take me from her. I was already hard pressed to NOT insist that she stay with me already. I knew she had to live at home with her family still. She was 16 now yes but she was also living with a protective father.  
I HIGHLY doubted he would accept my wanting her to live with me. He barely tolerated me in the beginning and was just now FINALLY accepting that I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Hell, I had been over to many Sunday dinners already and even talked to Shingo sometimes and talked with her father on occasion to. Her mother was a wonderful woman whom I could tell Usagi respected a lot and had good reason to.  
That was also another reason why I knew this was reality. It was a tedious balancing act with her family and me. I never would have given that scenario a plausibility to happen so soon. Not when the first time I met them her father chased me literally off the front lawn. So, baby steps were progressing well enough. I was glad the illusions or delusions were for the most part gone, yet there were sometimes when something I’d hear would trigger a memory of what happened and what led me to be dead in the first place.  
Its why I know Usagi didn’t know it but her mention to me earlier of the plane triggered me. I had yes been in a poorly signaled area, but I got the text as I went into it. I just didn’t respond right away as I needed time to accept what she was asking and realize that while I probably should have gone I couldn’t. Not yet. So instead I buried myself in my schoolwork and stayed in a near reception free area till it was time to go.  
Then when she came over it hit me again when Usagi mentioned the other passengers that I had been trying to protect. Yes, I had tried to protect them, and yet I obviously failed miserably in my efforts. However, it wasn't just because of Galaxia and how much battle hardened she was, or how much more trained she was. No, it was because I failed as the prince of earth to call my love, the senshi of earth for back up.  
I clenched my eyes shut as I thought about this before letting them open again. My STUPID pride got in the way as I felt I could handle it, handle the threat alone. I had done so much on my own beforehand. Had spied on the dark moon in the dark crystal when Chibi Usa was with them and did so successfully. I had even done my fair share of bad guy grunt work when I was under the influence of Metallia.  
I felt that I could do it and ended up fucking everything up. I hadn't bothered to call her or the girls when I could have. So, despite Usagi’s words that were true yes, I knew it in my gut that those passengers’ lives, those that didn’t make it, they were on me. I know Usagi was trying to be there for me but in the end, I knew the truth of it. Which is why I didn’t stop her or tell her she was wrong but in a sense she was.  
After all, for the most part that’s what happened. Galaxia and I fought. One on one, I lost, end of story. It wasn’t the end though, not for me it wasn’t. I think part of me, a small angry, pissed off at the fact that I failed part of me was still on that plane, was still in the cauldron praying for another chance…still needing to right the wrong that I knew was my fault. It was why I knew I should have gone with her to the crash site.  
I should have left my pride behind, left with my books, transformed and gone with her. I should have faced the plane that I lost my battle on, showed it and myself that I could face it and accept my faults and let it go, but I couldn’t accept that fact. I was too chicken shit to do it and frankly I didn’t have the courage to stand up to it and face off against whatever was there mentally for me to deal with.  
When she told me about the fact that we might have a new enemy, I knew it could be a chance for me to right a wrong. I could be a better more skilled warrior than I was right now. We could better our fighting skills together and I could finally one day face the wreckage, even if it was just the spot where it fell. It would at least be something. There was one other thing that I failed to tell her though.  
I didn’t tell her cause I didn’t want her to know that I went after Galaxia not because I didn’t know anything about her as an enemy which yes is true but that wasn’t why, but because I was too stubborn and willful of myself, to cocky perhaps to send out a message to the girls, to her, for help. I had already residual feelings of inferiority when Galaxia sent Nehellenia back to screw with us and that she took me as her bitch…temporary as it was.  
I was upset with myself for not telling Usagi that I was feeling off then. Pushing her away instead of saying ‘hey I feel somethings wrong’. Nope, I had to face it myself…again. My stupid need to handle so much on my own had actually been causing us problems. It was the reason for many mistakes made between us that I tended to forget so often that as my girlfriend, as my future wife I should go to her with issues.  
Its why you have a partner for life, to talk to about this and face it together. To gain that trust, that support and mental and emotional help from. I needed it yet I didn’t take it. So Nehellenia took me from her. I don’t even remember much about where I was, only that I was trapped somewhere and was a lifeless body of bubbling crap on the outside. I was as bad as a vegetable and could barely be reached.  
What got me upset though wasn’t just that, it was also the one question I had about it, why was it always ME that was turned? It was either me or Chibi Usa who is an extension of us both, that normally got turned. None of the girls ever truly did. Usagi for her part found her way back when Nehellenia tried to trap her in a mirror world but Makoto’s helped her find her way back by reminding her of me in her own way.  
Like seriously is there something in my bloodline that allows for the Terrian’s royalty to be easily swayed or am I not connected enough with the golden crystal to avoid it?! I mean my own parents were swayed when Beryl tried to take over the kingdoms to get to the silver crystal for Metallia. I barely managed to escape from earth at that point to get to Serenity. She was all I had left after my own guardians were turned against me.  
Though as I think about it, I realized now that things might have gone differently had Beryl or Metallia known about the golden crystal being as powerful of a crystal as it is. It had been such a well-protected secret that half the royal family on earth didn’t know of its existence till my parents deemed them trustworthy enough to be told of it. It made sense though and I knew exactly why to.  
The people of earth for as advanced and wonderfully kind and generous as some could by, others could be downright evil and not to say that the moon’s people couldn’t be but since the moon’s people already had been touched and blessed by the silver crystals power there wasn’t a crushing need to use it for wealth or vanity as there was on earth. The silver crystal was pretty well known for its extreme powers and what it could do.  
Its ability to grant those longer life spans and the fact that it granted Lunarian’s that gift was something that my people sought. Others however only saw either power for themselves as Metallia did when she used Beryl or saw the ability to give such gifts as a blasphemy and called it a godlike power than no human should have. Didn’t help that Lunarian’s weren’t considered completely human.  
It was also probably why Chibi Usa was already very powerful in her own right. Two parents who were infinitely powerful themselves, in a future where they’ve come to power and rule over earth and the moon as a power couple. She would eventually take over the silver crystal as its natural bearer as Usagi once had as she would also have access to the golden crystal as she did when Nehellenia tried to kill her.  
I couldn’t help but pinch the bridge of my nose slightly at my thoughts. At the end of the day I sincerely hoped it was just a poor connection, something I could work on to improve so that I could be better, stronger, faster and wouldn’t be taken out so easily in one blow. At least make my death when that happens something worthwhile. Like we’ve clearly been battling for days if not weeks or months.  
Granted I’d prefer to go out with Usagi by my side, preferably in bed as we grow older together and, in each other’s arms, but if it’s on the battlefield same thing, only not in a bed. Just bloodied from fighting and ready to be together in the next life that’s ours. However, that was neither here nor there right now. I did have to admit one thing though. Usagi was right, one hit from that bitches’ bracelets and I was out.  
I know Usagi didn’t refer to her as a bitch and would probably refrain since Galaxia is a senshi, and is sorry for her actions against the rest of us for what she did, BUT…as the girls and I know this as we’ve been hit ourselves, Galaxia was a utter bitch for what she did, influenced by chaos on not, she made a choice to do what she did and it wasn’t going to stop me from feeling as I did towards her.  
Just like Beryl choose to let her obsession for me control her and her need for power let Metallia take over and take what she wanted. Galaxia let herself be influenced by chaos and let chaos in when she should have left it alone, but her arrogance wouldn’t let her. I shut my eyes briefly, just like my own arrogance wouldn’t let me call the girls for help. I knew I was thinking like an ass at the moment, but it couldn’t be helped.  
I was pissed not only at Galaxia for what she did but at myself for letting my pride get the better of me as I took on an unknown enemy without any backup. Despite my previous enemy encounter’s which were and had been numerous and many over the years one would think that no matter how seasoned a warrior you are, that no matter how trained and skilled you were, that despite the many times you had beaten an enemy back, that you’d be smart enough to call for backup when there’s a new enemy in the area.  
Especially when the odds clearly AREN’T in your favor. Usagi was right, I was in the sky, away from earth at that point, I couldn’t call upon my other powers since I was too far from earth. It also didn't help that I wasn't very well connected to the earth as I remember I had previously been in my past life. I distinctly remember being so connected in my past life that I was able to call upon a red rose for Serenity on the moon.  
They weren't exactly prevalent up on the moon and she had never seen them before so to impress her I formed one on the moon so she could see it. My previous earth mother always did tell me I had her touch when it came to planting and that of nature. She was a wise woman and knew that Serenity was good for me...hell she knew what was good for me before I knew it and before even my father knew it.  
I think it's why he also loved her so much, and why he valued her input on many of the things that went down during their reign. I sighed and tried to not think about the parents I once had, the ones that I lost to that witch. Original point here was that since I didn’t bother to train as much as I should have been and we all knew it I just let my need to study take precedence and really I should have made both priorities in my life.  
Yet I didn't. I let my connection to earth slack and as a result I could barely gain a whisp of anything while on the plane. I knew I was hard on myself for it but not as much as I could have been to be honest, plus lastly, I acted hastily regarding Galaxia. I let her attitude and general nature antagonize me into fighting against her when it actually played right into her hands to what she wanted.  
I watched how she moved for only a few seconds and reacted. I should have tried to engage her in more verbal tactics, but I didn't. Instead I took the first action, which wasn't too smart to do, and my guard was down. I knew better than to try to take her on, especially where I was at, but both my pride and my need to protect the others on the plane came out and I couldn’t be bothered with messaging the girls.  
Hell, the other girls had sense enough to do it. Rei did it when the death busters first came around. She knew that despite being a seasoned senshi that had taken on her fair share of monsters that help was needed. As a matter of fact, she did it while running for her life and didn't even get to transform. Yet she was able to get a message out to the nearest girl for help knowing there was a new unknown enemy in the area.  
Usagi did it many times herself, especially if there was a lot of innocent people around that could be hurt if the proper action wasn't taken. I can think of several instances where she saved so many lives by making sure she had the proper back up and it wasn't because she couldn't handle the monsters there but because in the end she was terrified that for even one split second if she lost focus on an innocent that the life would be lost.  
She would still kill the monster, but she'd rather die herself than to lose an innocent life. She had done that already many times I had nearly lost count. So yeah, she called in for backup every chance she got. All the girls did at one point or another. Granted it would vary as to WHEN the backup would get there to help but still, it would have been called in to aid in the rescue of innocent lives at stake.  
I was the prideful ass that tried to do it all on my own and failed at it. Miserably so. I still remember those moments. Feeling my soul leave my body. I knew I was gone the moment I was struck by the dual hits. There was no hope in me that I would make it out of that fight alive that day. I could have chosen to fall back to the earth, leave the plane, yet I knew without a doubt once she hit me that I would have disappeared leaving only my star seed behind long before I came close to hitting the ground.  
She had me where she wanted me…vulnerable. She was after one thing and one thing only and she made sure I was at a weak point and alone when she did it. The timing was too perfect for her and I didn't even think about it. I sighed, the pressure of my thoughts weighing me down again as I forced myself to not drown in them by turning just the slightest bit to look down at my beloved Usagi.  
She was so beautiful. So peaceful looking. So serene...it’s no wonder her past mother named her Serenity. It wasn't just because it was a family name. I mean it was, but it wasn't just because of that. Looking at her peaceful face, her bright golden hair that held glimpses of silver in it, something that the layers of golden blonde hide for now, seeing her long lashes, watching her chest rise and fall as the sheet showed just a hint of breast to my gaze.  
I could feel myself become hungry again for her. Her hair was all over my bed to, spread out like a corona around her, like angle wings almost. I was laying on some of them to, feeling the follicles between my fingers as I petted the fine feel of them. It amazed me sometimes how such a sweet, compassionate, passionate, heartwarming, genuine, generous, smart and witty woman could have the stubbornness to match a mule and win, and have enough heart to save even her enemies and still go toe to toe with me.  
What I wondered more about it however was how I was going to survive and live without her in America. That's when I briefly recalled something, I hadn't shared with Usagi. That I had been tempted to ask her father if she could come with me to America to finish off high school and live with me as I went into medical school. I had the serious notion however that he was going to say no so I didn't even ask him and now I'm wondering how that would have played out on the plane that fateful day now.  
With Usagi with me we would have definitely had an extended fight but how would it have gone really? Would we have won not knowing hardly anything about Galaxia, and with just the two of us at that? Would Usagi have used her crystal to beat her back into a retreat and have been able to save everyone on the plane that day? Or would she have caught Usagi off guard as she did with me and killed her as she did with me?  
The very thought of her killing Usagi now as I even let it cross my mind terrified me of how one simple act could have changed potentially everything for us. Or how it could have saved everyone that day. I could have lost Usagi in seconds OR she could have saved everyone and stopped Galaxia long before she did. That was however only IF her parents had said yes to letting her come with me.  
IF I had asked them permission to let her come with me. Even if I had just wanted her there to visit for that first week to help acclimate me while she enjoyed America and what it had to offer her. She would still have been on that flight with me regardless. I clutched her slightly tighter in my grip feeling overwhelmed by my thoughts and feelings right now. On one hand yes had she been there I had the fullest confidence as I thought this through that Usagi would have been strong enough to ward Galaxia off.  
Deep down I knew it. She would have saved everyone on the flight. Yet on the other hand, the one that was making me want to cry right now was that what if...what if Galaxia caught HER off guard as she did with me. It’s not like Usagi hasn't taken her fair share of hits before in the past, she's a real trooper to take them and keep on going. Yet Galaxia's hits were with one targeted goal in mind.  
Thinking on that only seemed to make me gladder that she DIDN'T come with me and that I was glad yet feeling guilty that I ever felt this way. Had she been there yeah Galaxia would have probably been beaten back yet at the same time there was a chance she would have hit Usagi and I would have lost her. So yeah I would have to say that all guilt aside I'm glad that Usagi wasn't already there only for the simple factor of that chance that IF Galaxia would have won that day against her I'd have lost her for good.  
I couldn't lose her again. I had lost her far too often already, once was enough, twice was too much so I couldn't do anymore. I relaxed just a bit and even though I felt guilt at my thoughts I didn't feel it for long as I knew that the needs of many outweighed the needs of the few. Usagi has saved many more people now that Galaxia is gone compared to the what if of being on that plane that day.  
I relaxed in my hold of her but didn't release her. Instead I looked down and allowed myself a moment more to admire her. Felt the effect she had on me even in her sleep, unawares of the thoughts going on in my head. I've thought it once and I'll think it again, her past mother named her well. She must have felt how it was a perfect fit for her in her bones when she gave birth to her cause I felt it in my bones when I got to be with her.  
She pulled me out of so much despair that I didn't even know I held in me. I knew that while she loved me and would always love me, more than what I knew I deserved she had no idea the level of love I held for her. What I'd do to protect her or our family. She was my family and now that Chibi Usa was back home in her timeline, while the girls were here and while I cared for them as family to Usagi would ALWAYS be my first priority.  
She was my truest, my only love. I watched as she opened her eye lids and shone her big sleepy blue eyes at me. As the room was still relatively dark with no fixtures turned on her pupils were nearly completely dilated. A smile adorns on her face as she asked me, “How long have you been up?” I smiled down at her, “Not long…just enjoyed the sight before me.” She smiled wider, “You’re so sweet to me…sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky to have you…in two lifetimes no less.” I smiled myself as I cupped her face.  
I would tell her later on about how I felt about things. I would tell her we needed to both at some point go to where the plane was so I could face it as she already had. I'd explain to her WHY I needed to when the time was right, but for right now, with her in my arms I was going to enjoy every moment I have with her. “Funny, I was wondering the same thing about you…” I kissed her deeply as I leaned over and pushed her gently into the bed. She pulled me in as we succumb to our passions once more.


	4. self blame & formulating a plan

The end in the beginning ch.4

Mamoru POV

After we got done with that additional round of satisfying sex Usagi got up, with my shirt on her now as she decided to cook me a breakfast. Having spent the night over last night, asking Rei to cover for her, she got up early, something she'd gotten into a habit of when she began her job, and made me breakfast. It was French toast with a side of orange juice and coffee. I could hear her iPhone pumping out some music for her to dance to as she got the last slice done and, on the plate, a nice thin layer of butter between them.

I watched her dance as she had her hair messily up in a floppy bunnish looking do from our late-night carnal activities. I couldn't help but lean against the door frame cross my arms and grin at the sight before me. She was even singing along to it and while she didn't have all the lyrics down, she knew the rhythm by heart and was nailing and bopping along to all the bumps and beats that came in the song.

When she started to cock her hips out to the rhythm, I felt myself beginning to stir for her again, something that never failed when it came to her. I never let her know of my level of need for her before Galaxia came along. I didn't want to risk her tempting me anymore than she already did which was often enough. I know she didn't see it herself, but she was a highly attractive woman that any man worth his salt would fall over backwards to lock down.

Yeah I had a crappy way of showing it to her at first but had I not, if I didn't make fun of her at first, had I NOT been her frenemy and had I let her in so easily in the beginning, she'd have lost her virginity to me LONG before she actually did. That was the effect she had on me and my self-control. Before when she had it, I had to constantly restrain myself from trying to find MORE ways to be around her. More ways to fit into her life and be around her, with her, and wake up to this type of sight in the morning.

she spun around in the shirt she wore of mine as she finally noticed my presence, "Morning, thought maybe a nice breakfast would do us both some good for the day." I smiled, she never stopped trying to make me feel better about things. I smiled and already felt better today about things. Especially now that I got to hold her in my arms. I know I had to tell her about how I felt on the matter.

I looked at my cell for the time and found that we still had a good hour before I had to leave and before she had to be at school. Honestly this should have been discussed weeks ago, but I had some issues that I felt I needed to work through on my own before I spoke to her about them, yet I also didn't take into account if she had any issues with me being gone herself. She was waiting for me so we could discuss things together.

I sighed, "Usako...Usa..." I sat down at the countertop as she came around the corner and sat down herself, pouring some syrup on top of her French toast. She looked over at me and saw the expression in my eyes. Instantly she knew I was feeling a certain way. "What is it?" she asked, her hand going out to touch my arm. I relaxed at the touch and slid into the seat in front of her, "We need to talk about my time away. Where I was and what happened." she looked relieved, like she'd been waiting on this for a while.

I know I shouldn't have waited on this as I did but at the time I thought it was what was right, truth was I was afraid to show her any weaknesses and that's what you do when you're in a relationship, you see the good and the bad. "I felt like I was in a near dreamworld like state of unconsciousness. After Galaxia took my start seed, I knew I was dead. I had been dead before, but this felt...permanent." I explained as we stayed at the bar seats.

The breakfast lay nearly forgotten till both of our stomachs growled for food. I grabbed a slice of the toast and munched on it as I spoke. She nibbled on hers, chewing thoughtfully around the toasted bread in syrup as she listened thoughtfully to me, "I knew that my only way out was through you. I just didn't know when or if there would be a when." I could tell she wanted to talk but didn't as she let me continue to go on.

I put my hand on hers as I continued telling her about how I felt and how it felt to be in where I was. I watched her facial expressions change, going from a few different emotions in the span of a few seconds as I described how it was. The hardest part of this would be telling her of my own guilt in this as to WHY I felt this way...and WHY I felt guilty over it and WHY it was my fault in this.

I had held onto this for so long it felt both good and scary to get it out to her. I could only hope she'd forgive me. As I went along and told her all of my thoughts and fear all but what I knew was my fault I could see she was realizing there was missing pieces to the story I was giving her, I could see it in her eyes that she was curious and already wanting to question what lead me to thinking this about where I was.

So when I gave a pause that was for her turn to ask any questions she responded with, "Mamo - chan, maybe it's just because of the different perceptions of what we were living in at that time but, why do you think, why would Galaxia torture you or why would the cauldron do that to you if all she had to do was..." she struggled to find a nice way of saying 'kick your ass all over' as I knew that is exactly what Galaxia did.

In the span of a few seconds to. A few embarrassing seconds I might add. Could make one wonder what's more embarrassing, loose a fight THAT demand fast or when you're with your girl, or guy, coming to fast before you've even had a chance really to enter them. Both could be worked on but which one I wondered now was worse? Humiliation wise that is since obviously one holds more power and precedence than the other.

"In her world that she created?" Usagi manages to get the importance of the question out as I ponder my own stupid internal debate. Now I was going to have to admit to things and I braced myself internally for it. "Honestly so she could, or it could torture me for my failures in life. Not being able to protect and save people." that plane with its inhabitants comes to mind as I talk to her. I then take her free hand with mine.

"Not being able to protect you when you needed it. Not that I'm saying you need saving but..." she puts her free fingers to my lips, "I get it." giving me a small reassuring smile. I shove the last piece into my mouth before taking her free hand as she takes one last bite herself and hold it close to me, so she understands the depth that I was feeling about this. "I clung onto the hope that someday you'd find a way to get us out."

The expression in her face was stunned. I hoped I wasn't putting pressure on her for a past event, but I wanted to tell her the truth. "To save us. Galaxia, I know she knew this and instead of killing off that hope she used it. After all you can't torture someone who has nothing left to be taken away. At least that's what was going on inside my head." I tell her, Usagi responds with, "So she created an average world, with an average boring life that has all of your friends and family in it as torture."

You know when it's said like that it's hard to believe but when you think about it, as I did, it made perfect sense. "It had to be believable, so it had to be boring and normal. Aside from the potential new threat these days." we both acknowledged that. "Beyond that though, it had to have you in it and in it we were there together." for a moment I became lost in the memories of being in there.

Found myself breathing in deeply to remember that I wasn't in there anymore. It took her calming touch to pull me out of it. I looked up at her and smiled happily, "But after a little while I knew it wasn't real." I knew Usagi was going to ask how I knew, "How?" I only smiled that I already knew what she was going to ask me. "Because you weren't real. Your touch, your everything felt like nothing at all." she really had been more like a floating mirage in a desert when I was dead.

It was both saddening and gave me a sensation of hope that she was still alive. That seeing her meant that her memory hadn't yet faded. That it wasn't to late or anything. It gave me hope as much as it felt like it tortured me to see her and NOT be able to touch her or hold her. Much like I wanted to do with her right now. Hold her even as I was touching her. Her smooth skin making me want to touch more of her.

Even down to her syrup tasting lips that I suddenly wanted to kiss and nibble on. I would hold off on that though, wait until AFTER we get through this conversation before, we devil into anything sexual. "I know it sounds strange but that's how I knew then and know now that this is reality. That what I had experienced was from my time being dead in Galaxia's grasp." I was just a lucky piece in that puzzle though.

Thinking on it now, I was only able to leave and go back to Usagi cause of her actions against to help Galaxia freed all the star seeds that she stole. Since those weren't natural deaths they could be returned and freed. The rest where we were at weren't. "In there I couldn't feel anything. No touch, no sensation. Our star seeds remained undamaged so she could have unlimited supply to feed from." I saw Usagi's face.

Watched the emotions play as she took this in. The response I got though was shocking, "I'm sorry." that's when I saw the emotions come up fast. Her eyes started to water as she took it all in. She blamed herself. "I'm sorry I didn't notice sooner. I should have noticed something when I never got a call back or a text, anything. I let myself get subsumed into the new enemy at the time not knowing they were related to what happened to you." I took her in my arms to sooth her.

I never would have thought she'd take this as being her fault which just made me feel worse about what I had to say next, "Usako, there was NOTHING you did wrong. I promise you that this was - " but she cut me off, "How was it not though? I let it consume part of my life, I didn't reach out to the girls on it, I didn't tell anyone that I hadn't gotten a response really, from you till Haruka made an inquiry." I still held her but now wondered that myself.

"I have to admit..." she pulled away and looked up at me, "Part of me feared that since you were in the states that you'd either met someone else, someone more sophisticated than me or maybe...you saw that life beyond what we have was something you wanted more. That being here meant being stuck saving us from time to time. That it meant you were free to pursue your original goals in life." I was stunned she felt this way.

I looked at her as she continued on, "I felt so guilty that maybe being here was holding you back that I didn't want to tell the girls that I somehow might have driven you away. That that was the reason why you hadn't responded. I didn't want to admit to it and in failing to do so I feel like a part of me failed you." now my eyes were watering a bit, "Usako, trust me when I say this, you are NOT at fault here." she goes to talk but I cut her off this time.

"No! You're not. You know why? Cause I'm at fault." she looks at me in confusion not understanding why I'm telling her it's me that messed up and not her. She shouldn't blame herself for this, not when there was no blame to place on her. It wasn't fair, "I had a choice originally..." I admit, hoping she'll accept what I didn't tell her back then. What dilemma I had when I made such a life altering choice.

"Usa...both Tokyo University AND Harvard had accepted me." her eyes widened a bit, but words came out, "I decided on Harvard ONLY because it was my original plan to go with before we met. I had been planning on it for at least the last five years BEFORE we met. I pre-pared for it, planned it all out. I had everything set." I looked at her face as I told her what happened next.

"I applied there so that I could become the best doctor out there, to stop any other kids that I could from going through what I went through, but then I met you." her shoulders dropped a bit, almost as if she was feeling guilty now. "You made me realize that I could still be the best doctor out there no matter if it was Harvard or another of the top five schools in existence. So, I applied to Tokyo University to." she had a small smile on her face.

"It suddenly became clear; I could be my best because I had you in my life. Because of your encouragement. When I got the letter for Harvard in the mail accepting me, it was before the one for Tokyo came in, mainly cause I applied for Harvard in way advance before Tokyo, so when I told you about Harvard a strong part of me really wanted to stay here, I just wanted to be with you." I can see the shock on her face.

"So, when you encouraged me to go make my dreams come true, I knew that I had the most amazing special young woman out there. It's one of the reasons why I gave you this engagement ring." I toy with it lightly on her finger. Never once did I ever see it off her hand. She'd rather pick dough out of the silver parts than to take it off. It always made me smile to see that, "I knew that you were mine and mine alone."

now she was tearing up as I was, "I know it sounds stupid even to say it but, I knew a long time ago that you were my 'ride or die' chick, cause you were as hell bent on doing what was right even it meant sacrificing something on your end. You were willing to make the sacrifice of not seeing me every day for months at a time just to make me happy." she holds my hand now, our emotions beginning to get the better of us both.

"When we were at the airport that day and I gave it to you, seeing that look of emotion on your face, I knew in my gut I should have stayed here. I wanted to tell you that I couldn't leave yet when the intercom came on and announced my flight you walked with me to it. Strong as ever and I wanted to show you I was just as strong as you. I should have listened to my gut and stayed with you. Maybe if I had we wouldn't have lost the time we did together." I can't help but want to sulk a bit.

I can tell she wants to hug me but is waiting, it's as if she senses that I have more to tell. "There's also another confession I have. It's been on my mind for a while now." she encourages me to tell her, "I knew I should have called for backup that day. I should have called out to you, but I didn't, instead I tried to take on Galaxia by myself and died for my efforts. Had I made that call; those passengers might still be alive."

I might not have made it but she and the girls could have saved them...I push the last of my confession out as she takes my face into her hands, "Mamo - chan...you don't honestly believe that those passengers lives are on your hands do you?" I look to her face, seeing the shock and befuddlement, as if she can't understand why I indicated blame onto myself. "It's the truth Usako...Usa...had I made the call..." she puts her fingers to my lips to shush me as I seek out her watery eyes.

I don't understand how she doesn't see me at fault here. I saw it all to easily. "It's not your fault Mamo - chan, there was no way you could have called us." I was confused now but I know that this was my error. I know she was trying to assure me it wasn't my fault, but it was, "You don't know that." I try to tell her, to explain to her how this was on me. Those lost lives were ALL on me.

I bent my head down as she pulled it back up, a soothing small smile on her lips. "Actually, I do." now I was truly confused on how she believed that. Did she NOT understand what I was telling her? "The communicators that we have only work in our atmosphere. You would have gotten sketchy reception at best if at all. Hell, even cell phones wouldn't have worked as high up as you were. They call it airplane mode for a reason."

I arched a brow at her words and that's when I tried to recall how far out the reception really was on the communicators we used. Thinking on it now, would I have been able to get help had I tried? "Mamo - chan do you not remember when Rubeus captured the girls then went after me to get to Chibi Usa?" I nodded and felt annoyance creeping up at the reminder of it as I recalled it very well.

"Yeah I was pissed that you went off and got captured. I felt helpless being unable to find where you were and with no means of getting to you." I tell her, voicing my irritation from that evening, "I know you came back with the girls safely but still..." I voiced. "Mamo - chan, for starters I didn't go and 'get captured'..." she corrects me, "I went to confront him. Plus, I wasn't expecting for Chibi Usa to follow me." she mutters.

I remember she was irritated at that herself but what was done was done. "My point being, I didn't call for back up because I was out of range." she pulls hers out of her bag and shows it to me. A tiny little dot of green light shows up. "This little green dot shows that its online, that you have reception, BUT if there's no light at all, there's no communication to be had." it did make sense, much like the service on a cell if the reception is weak or dead then there won't be any service at all.

"I was up against a formal adversary who already had the girls pinned to giant dark crystal looking crosses, knocked out and drained of energy. It took me weakening him to get them released from his hold of them. When I beat him badly enough to get them loose, he activated a self-destruct sequence on board. He wanted to be able to take all of us down with him. It was only when he was out of sight that Rei commented on not making it back to earth since I was nearly tapped out." I was stunned to hear this.

I had never gotten the full story, just a summarized version of them winning before dispersing into the evening. We were just so happy to have a win after dealing with him and the sisters for so long, so I didn't question it. "It was Ami who convinced us to use our reserve energies to bring us all back home before the ship imploded from the inside out. Honestly we owe her our lives for that." she tells me.

Her eyes looking off for a moment, "That thing was obliterated seconds after we left. Point remains though that there was no reception to be had. I was trapped, isolated, alone, with a strong enemy on his turf. I had no choice, so I did what I had to do just as you did." she says as I ponder my own guilt and the reasons behind it. Did she have a point after all? She too was isolated and alone while dealing with an enemy.

Was she right? Would I have been essentially dead regardless? I wouldn't have LEFT the plane when she attacked so it's not like I would have jumped off the plane and skydived to earth for my own safety, who knows what she would have done with the plane or the inhabitants of it after I left. I didn't know at the time who she was or what she was after, not truly. Then there was the other question.

Would I really NOT have been able to call for them for help even if I had tried? I felt like I needed to try it myself but to get an accurate test I'd have to be in a plane at the exact time and location. The one factor that I couldn't replicate though would be whatever interference Galaxia caused at the time. For all I know she was causing a blockage that prevented any distress signals from reaching back down to earth. It honestly was feeling like a weight was gently being lifted from me.

Could it really be so that I couldn't have gotten a distress call out? That the events were going to play out regardless if I tried to call my Usako or not? However, one thing did sink it back down onto me. Even if I had and it HADN'T gone through, I would have at least tried and that was where I had failed at. I didn't try. "You have a very good point Usagi...you do..." I needed her to know how serious I was about this.

"But it doesn't matter if the call would have gone through or not cause the point is, I didn't even try to make it. I didn't try to call for back up. I tried to take on a new enemy on my own because I was arrogant and cocky. My pride got in the way and cost lives. Lives that could have been saved." I turned away from her at that point, not wanting to see the disappointment in her face as she came to the same conclusion I had.

To cowardly to see it, so when she placed her fingers and wrapped them around my chin and FORCED me to look at her angered face I gulped. Here it comes. "Don't you dare." her voice was low but stern, "Don't you dare blame yourself for that." my eyes widened now, "That wasn't you being prideful or cocky out there." she begins, making sure to enunciate her points as she spoke to me.

"Not when you were isolated yourself and fighting a new enemy, trying to protect people. No that was your natural urge to protect others coming to the forefront." her grip tightened on my chin as I shifted, "Look at me." I did, I fully looked into her heated eyes as she saw in me what I couldn't believe was still there. Belief. Trust. In me. It threw me off enough to not move away from her anymore.

"What happened on that plane, that was your duty of being a guardian of this world. You did what anyone of us would have done. You got up from your seat and took charge by doing what you could to ensure the safety of the passengers on board. You knew that the safety of the passengers were important and you went with your gut to help them over fleeing to help yourself. That's what pushed you to face her one on one." she tells me with such conviction that I can't stop myself from forming tears.

I accepted looking at her now and saw angry tears, "It wasn't arrogance. Galaxia was the arrogant one in the end. She got in a good shot on you and that was all. Fine you didn't win the fight but, in the end, we won the war and THAT'S what counts. I dare you to defy that." she quips as she drinks down her orange juice. "Now I've got to get ready for school." she leans in and kisses me softly but with a passionate twist in the end as she walks off to the bedroom to change her clothes.

She had some convincing points, and very true ones to, yet I couldn't shake the guilt I felt. I couldn't fully shake what I had going on in my head all this time. It's not as if one conversation can erase the month of self-loathing, I had been putting myself through. The month where I cherished her very existence in my life cause I thought in the beginning was a created fantasy to cause me further pain by ripping it away from me when I completely let my guard down and let myself feel relief and freedom.

I will always cherish her in my life, if anything that's one of the many lessons my time away has taught me. Its why I wanted to talk to her father at some point about her moving in with me in at least a semi-regular basis. Allowing them to get used to her NOT being there so much thus allowing us to be together more and NOT have to go through fibs and lies to let us have an evening or morning together.

Usagi POV

I close the door to his room as I take a breath. I know I should have told him how I was feeling about the plane crash. How the girls were feeling about it and how it made me feel but one, time was short since it was the am and I really did need to get ready for school so I wouldn't get detention and be late for my shift, and while Motoki was understanding of certain excuses repeats of them not so much…even from me.

Secondly, I could tell he really needed to get that out and I wanted to let him absorb my responses towards him before I told him how I had been feeling about all of it. Besides this morning was more of a reflection of what we had begun to talk about last night, about the plane and what had been discovered. I wanted him to understand that he wasn't the guilty party in this equation. He truly believed he was but really, the girls and I knew that despite how Galaxia got in we felt more responsible in a sense than even Galaxia herself.

We were so busy trying to deal with life and choose to deal with it over accepting a new enemy yet again in our lives, that we finally got a taste of normalcy again that her presence, her existence hit us hard for a definite moment. I mean when we thought Nehellenia was gone out of our lives we stopped training as hard as we usually did so we could take the moment of peace we THOUGHT we had.

We took our thought to be peace to be free from senshi life even for just a moment in time and ran with it. We buckled down in school got up the next grade, took up extra activities at school, we were leading as normal as a life as we ever had since we met…and it cost us. I shut my eyes and forced myself to breath in. It cost the innocent lives of those who didn't survive on the plane Mamoru was on.

I could only think of how if I had just told someone about the lack of communication, that I wasn't getting calls or texts from Mamoru even though I KNEW we said we would talk weekly I still ignored the lack of it in hopes that he was just busy with his new classes. We could have investigated Mamoru's non-arrival; the plane being missing. Fine we didn't know the flight went missing, we couldn't have known as it wasn't exactly advertised.

It's not like Harvard called anyone to say, 'hey where's Mamoru at?' because Mamoru has no actual next of kin, and his only family listed is Motoki and myself, but they never called either of us since we're not directly related to him. Motoki still has no idea about what all that went down, I know Mamoru wanted to tell him the truth, all of it, but wanted to also keep him from harm to despite my telling him that maybe if we let him, Naru, and Umino know, those closest to us that perhaps it could be better.

We could actually better protect them and help others to if they were to be attacked and needed the aid or something. Yet he decided that for now Motoki at least and the rest should remain in the dark. His need to protect everyone had come out during that particular discussion as I conceded to having it again at a later date. Point is Motoki and the others I felt by now should know especially since we'd been lying to them about this for years.

More to the point of that point is that Motoki had also been upset at what Mamoru told him what happened, or the lie that he gave to Harvard. Motoki wanted to write a strongly worded letter to the university, but Mamoru had to talk him out of it. Those two had a deep brotherly bond and I was glad he had someone to talk to about things. While technically Mamoru also had Haruka to go to, to talk to, I think since she teased him often, he decided against it. It didn't help that just to get under his skin she would occasionally flirt with me.

She, Michiru and I knew it was harmless, but I could tell Mamoru sometimes was a little jealous of my hanging out with them when the other girls weren't around. Not that he thought anything would happen far from it, he trusted all of us, he just wasn't a fan of her teasing at times was all, "You ready in there?" Mamoru called out to me as I nearly jumped in my skin, "Give me five." I called back as I got dressed for school.

As I left out of his place, I kiss Mamoru and tell him I'll text him later, "Let me know if you can come over afterwards." He says as I smile, "Of course." As I give him another kiss and leave. Once I'm out though I search our connection and feel how he's holding onto trepidations still. Not as strong as they were this morning but their still there. I hope that I'll be able to show him that this isn't his fault, that he's NOT responsible for it.

Yet I have a feeling I'll be seeing more of his books strewn about on the coffee table at some point. Proof that he hasn't let it go and is trying to bury himself in his studies to hide himself and try to take care of schoolwork at the same time. It's a practiced measure of his. He either hides in his studies or now hides in sex with me. While I love the sex, we do need to get it all out and he needs to accept that he can't save everyone.

I had to learn that long ago and to this day I regret those that we couldn't save, even Nephrite in the beginning. I still wish we could have saved him. The lives lost on that plane though, he did what he could given his options and tried to save innocent lives. I reached the elevator and used our connection to send love and happiness through to him. I looked back at his door as I stepped in and whispered, "Trust me that I'm right Mamoru."

As the doors closed, I sighed. This would be a long day and as I predicted it was. The classes seemed to take forever despite my interactions with my friends. I had a feeling it was because I had things on my mind but otherwise the day was the same as others, boring. So when we got out I made a deal with Ami that during my break at the arcade as we were going there now, that I would peak in to central where she would be at to see how things were going. It was going to have to do since the scan would be taking a long while.

She agreed as we went about the rest of our classes. It was later on after school when I walked over to the arcade for my shift that I nodded to her as she walked into the back to go through our secret entrance. I changed, grabbing the clothes I had in my little locker and putting my school uniform inside so I could work more comfortably so and NOT feel like I was still at school when now it was working girl Usagi.

Motoki had me taking care of customers as Unazuki was busy helping the cook make sure desserts for people since I had gotten many of those orders. I chit chatted with a few customers to make the wait seem like less time, so they didn't put up much of a fuss. After over two hours went by on the clock, we had already had a small rush of students coming in and lots of other patrons to make orders for.

I recognized some of them from high school but not a lot as I took their orders. After the small rush was done and it had been dead for at least fifteen minutes I decided to take that break, "Hey Unazuki can you watch things for my half for a bit, I'm gonna take five minutes." She assures me she has it, "No worries, but keep your phone on you, if there's a rush I'll send out a text." I nod and leave out through the back.

I slip on over to the secret entrance and go down the stairs to central where I see Ami with her glasses on hard at work as she sits on the chair closest to the main monitor and goes over the statistical numbers while scanning the various areas around. I look over to see Luna and Artemis also on nearby chairs to monitoring things with their little paws as they try to look and presumably at any anomalies they can find. I don't see anything remotely close to anything visible on the screen above.

It's both good and distressing at once as it merely means that whoever is here now is definitely laying low. Thus, making it harder for us to do our jobs to protect people if they're not being engaged. Granted we don't WANT them to be attack people, whomever 'they' or 'it' is but we do need to find them or it soon so we can figure out who were up against and what their agenda is so we can either stop it.

Helping whatever entity this is became mute the moment innocents were lost. They've taken lives and to my recollection while people have been attacked by our enemies before no one has actually died from an attack. The plane was the first and hopefully the last. I sigh, "Judging by the blank scanning screen I take it nothing is new or exciting." My sarcastic joke only earns a frown from a weary looking Luna.

her eyes along with Artemis's are obviously tired and despite the need to keep up the monitoring, are ready to take an extended break. "Well that's technically both good and bad news. No nothing is showing up yet, but we still have to finish the scan." She tells me. I take a closer look at the felines, "When was the last time you took a few moments to allow your eyes to shut?" I asked her as I walked up closer.

Her response was clear and cut, "Sometime last night. Neither Artemis nor I could sleep so we figured to get a head start once we heard about the new enemy." I frown at her, "Are we talking 10-11 or past 1am?" I asked as she looks to Artemis. He responds, "Closer to midnight." his admittance leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth that their so worried their losing sleep over it, "Yeah well a break is needed for you two then."

Luna made to protest when I cut her off, "You're not going to do us or anyone any good if your dead on your paws." another frown but seeing as nothing was on the monitor she reluctantly hopes off with Artemis in tow as they join where the rest of the girls are at while Ami yawns herself, "And how long have you been at it?" I ask her. She looks to me, "I worked to use the Mercury computer to enhance it." I arch a brow at her.

"It needed an upgrade, so I gave it one. Now any type of evil threat no matter how small will be detected. I came in directly after school and have been in front on it ever since." I still feel concerned though, "So why the yawn?" I ask, she sighs and admits, "I designed the program last night or technically around four am when I woke up. It hit me so I got right on it so I could bring it over." I nod my head as I usher her from her seat.

"Do I need to give you the same speech?" I tell her as she huffs in resignation and leaves her seat to go join the girls to. I look over to see that Minako, Makoto, and even Rei are on the couch, but they're not tired, not by a long shot. If anything, their the opposite, struggling to stay calm and not get anxious as the monitor shows nothing so far. Nothing for them to fight, nothing to hunt and go after.

It sucks to be a trained fighter and to be told to wait and hunker down till something definitively happens. You don't take a trained soldier and tell them to take a chill for hours on end. Not especially when you KNOW there's an enemy nearby that's lurking about waiting to make a more. There's bound to be a mistake made out of sheer boredom. "This waiting is a killer." Rei groans as she paces about, clearly agitated and waiting to pounce.

"It's a pain in the ass is what it is." Makoto snips, bouncing a ball against the wall. The dull thud of its repeat hits is enough to lull some of the others into a state of restlessness that keeps them from acting without thinking. Minako looks back and forth between her phone and the monitor, clearly unable to stop as the rest were. I look at it then at the girls, "Maybe we should take a more direct approach." I suggest.

This gets their attention, "How?" Rei as always is on board with a fighting with fire and bluntness approach, "I think we should set a trap of sorts. Let this new enemy think our guard is down." I start, "Let it think that we've ended our search and that we feel that it's not a threat anymore." I suggest further as Makoto stops bouncing the ball, "Let it think were weak, so it'll strike. I like it." she agrees as even Minako gets off her phone now, "This is based off the presumption that its watching us." she states.

I nod, "True, but it's also something we should try. I mean think about it. Yeah we investigate the sites of where an enemy has hit but we never, well not never, but how often do we actually try to lure then in?" the girls seem to think about this, "She's got a point." Makoto agrees, holding onto the ball in her hands, "We really do let the enemy come to us since they always have made that first move." Ami admits.

""Exactly I think this time we seek them out by acting like we've given up our search. Pretend that we're admitting defeat. Let it pops its head up and see physically what were up against." I advise as now Luna asks, "How are you so sure the new enemy will emerge while you guys act 'defeated'?" I look at them as we all give each other slightly tensed expressions before nodding their heads to let Luna and Artemis know how we feel.

They are our advisors after all. "Cause, after the plane crashed, we do feel a sense of responsible defeat after it. At least this way we can put a face to those responsible and make them pay for the lives lost and those hurt from the actions taken." I can see Luna's face soften at my words as Artemis says, "Then we need to be with you at all times going forward." he then looks to Ami as she agrees.

"We need to have that system connected to your communicators so that IF the enemy attacks we can be present and hear anything it might give away while you engage with it." I nod in agreement to what he wants. I look to my own phone now, "Okay as much as I'd like discuss the plans of what to do I have to get back to work, lets text it out so we can formulate this." the girls nod in agreement as I head up.

I saw Luna's pensive face before I left and knew what she was thinking. While she was glad that I had gotten a job and gained more responsibility at the same time duty fell to her first before anything really. Only the royal family came ahead of that and that was simply because it really fell in line with her duty moto. I did agree that duty was important, we lived it every day since I was fourteen, but we did have lives to.

We had to maintain them so we could survive and do our part in society to, not just be senshi 24/7. We were already on call all the time, regardless of where we were or who we were with, but we had to still be students, still be teenagers and still be there for friends and family. Soon enough more of the girls would get jobs and start to work part time to. Luna was only getting a taste of how things were with my part time job at the arcade.

What would happen when it was all of us working FULL time jobs? Would she put up a fuss or accept that while duty was a major priority, and innocent lives took the candle and the cake, maintaining our civilian lives and secret identities by having steady and stable jobs was a growing priority to. We were going to be graduating from high school soon enough and we already knew Ami would be going to medical school right afterwards full time.

I hoped though that Luna would start to accept all of our priorities in life and not just duty. They were all important. Don't get me wrong, I'd ditch work in a heartbeat to save an innocent and destroy a monster, it just doesn't meant that the job will still BE THERE when I return from that extendedly long lunch or dinner break and have the same repeat explanation to give if any at all to give to the boss I have.

Motoki's cool for now but everyone has their limits of what they can handle from an employee who's pulling a disappearing act on them all the time. So when it came to my job she wished I had more freedoms to come and go as I went so that duty could be before it but this was real life where regardless of WHO you were or WHO you knew, you still had to obey the rules and regulations of the work place.

Otherwise it could be seen as showing favoritism and could hurt moral in the long run. I had to explain this to Luna who wasn't too keen that I might have problems dropping a shift at the arcade to go to a battle or something if and when it happened and that if it were to happen enough it could result in a lost job or two and cause problems in getting future jobs because of that part of the potential history.

There's only so many 'family emergencies' one could use to explain away a disappearing act while you're on the clock taking care of either customers as I was or in the future when I had a career as a teacher to leave a class in the middle of a lecture to go fight a monster. I'd have a classroom full of students to take care and they would be as much of a priority to me as they should be.

So, I ignored her expressive gaze as I left back up the stairs. How Mamoru pulled off being his alter ego whenever he was on the clock at a job and got the call to save one of us, namely me, at all hours of the day or night was beyond me. Not to mention pulling it off if you're in the middle of a surgery or something equally necessary to NOT abandon at the first sign of trouble. That would be his career field after all.

These were things that I know Luna hasn't thought about just yet. Or if she has, she's not taking into account how this reflects or makes us look in the eyes of people that have NO knowledge of who we are as senshi and their trusty capped crusader. It's not like I can currently tell Motoki 'Hey mind if I ditch the rest of my shift to go battle a monster?' well if he knew WHO I was I'm sure he'd me go for that but he didn't.

However, he doesn't so I can't exactly do that. Recalling the fact that Mamoru seemed to make it happen for his side jobs had me curious on how he did it. I'd have to ask him about that sometime, right now however as I got back onto the arcade floor I pulled out my notepad and went to the first new table that had customers in it and took their order. Motoki nodded to me as he spotted me.

I smiled back as I went to the next table for more orders before heading to the window as I heard the ding of the bell signaling that the first set of customers food and drinks were ready to be served so my break was nicely timed out. I smiled and nodded as I left off for the customers to enjoy their meal in peace. I then looked out the window briefly and out at the rising moon as I wondered when this new enemy would make itself known.


	5. the mercurian solution & arcade attack

The end in the beginning ch.5  
Usagi POV  
Now knowing we needed to lay low and act as if we gave up our search on the new enemy, we if anything became more watchful than ever before. It really did feel as if we were undercover and waiting for the bad guy to show up while pretending to have a normal life and act normal. Not to easy for five battle hardened trained soldiers and one very watchful capped crusader who wanted to get his hands on the one responsible to.  
We did this for a whole week. We were watchful on school grounds and made sure to have each other’s backs when we could and to watch out for other students as well. I’m sure our actions caught the attention of other students as being somewhat odd but for the most part we really couldn’t help it. The news of the plane being discovered had died out as much as any other news story had so that was one thing down.  
At the beginning of the week it was sound. We fell into a new routine to make the plan happen, we just had to work around each other’s schedules and make sure we didn’t act out of the ordinary while Luna and Artemis did nightly patrols. We had hoped they would at least find something but there was nothing that struck their senses as odd or anything. By the end of Tuesday the scan on Japan had been done and unfortunately it came up with zero results. It both relieved us that whatever it was wasn’t here and worried us.  
For all we knew it was attacking somewhere overseas where we wouldn’t know or hear of it. So we made sure to expand the search to worldwide. Ami said for the expansion of it added to the fact that it would pick up ANY type of energy that had malicious intent and had evil in them was on the scanner to making it harder to weed through what was our enemy and what was just cannon fodder.  
Ami widened it up and sent a connection link to her Mercury computer so that we could be aware of it hitting if we were in a group setting. She was currently working on a way to get it to link up to the communicators we had so each of us could have a link to it if it went off for something nearby. Unfortunately it was hard to modify Lunarian technology when the original piece came from Mauian.  
Luna and her were currently working on it during their free time while Artemis decided to stick to patrolling at nights. Midway through the week we all felt uneasy. Like we were being watched at various point’s yet we saw nothing. No alarm bells were going off nothing. We even had to force ourselves to NOT continuously peak over our shoulders, we wanted the enemy to think we had forgotten about them.  
We had a feeling thing’s were going to happen soon enough when Mamoru noticed that the earth seemed to try to tell him thinks. Like when we went for a walk through the park the wind would pick up out of nowhere, but it was the chill it left behind, as if it were trying to speak to him in some form. I could tell his connection to the golden crystal and earth were getting stronger from it and from his own mental exercises.  
So when we went to the arcade at the end of the week, meeting up there on a Friday since I had a shift of Saturday and had Friday off for it, I grabbed our usual booth as Ami came in next as she fussed with her Mercury computer. “What’s wrong?” I asked, she looked more frustrated than upset, “The updates I’ve put on here are taking forever and I fear I might have to talk to Luna about upgrading the model itself as it may not have enough memory left on it for what I want to do next.” Now I’m curious.  
“For what?” I ask as I watch her type over the mini-computer, “I’m working on an algorithm to link it at least to the communicators so that if there’s an alert you all will get it to WITHOUT needing to get new communicators. I just have to figure out the right programming code so that I can write it out and turn it into a usable function on this, but the bloody thing is taking forever.” I can’t help but smile a tad bit.  
She’s had the Mercury computer since I can remember, and it doesn’t exactly upgrade to a whole new one with every upgrade we get to our powers. It just changes the current model and now it seems she might actually need to see about reconfiguring it to accept new programs she’s writing for it. “You never cease to amaze me with what you can do with that brain of your Ami. Your one of a kind.” I tell her as she stops for a moment.  
As if finally taking in her surroundings she puts it down for a moment, takes a breath and sighs, “Thanks, but it doesn’t feel like it when a tiny piece of hardware stumps you.” I motioned for Motoki to come over as I tell her, “Isn’t that how most computers are though? Making you feel like its more advanced when its mankind, or Mercurian who made it possible?” she giggles a bit as Motoki comes over, “Your new usual?” he asks.  
A joke between us that now that I work here and don’t eat the burger and fries with a shake as I normally do that, I want to get my new usual. “I’ll take a water for now, we’ll wait for the others to arrive before we order.” He nods and talks to Ami, “I hear your close to graduating soon impressive.” His kind words have her smiling and her cheeks blushing a bit in pride, “Thanks, it’s been a hard road to follow but it’s been worth it.”  
Motoki really was proud of her. She’d come to be like another sister to him after me. It’s strange how I used to have a crush on him till Mamoru showed up, then I couldn’t figure out how I saw him as anything more than a friendly brotherly figure. I think that was in part due to being the only older guy I knew that was cute so I put the prospect of crush on him without really knowing to much about him.  
I guess that’s why they call them fleeting, you don’t feel that way for very long before you move onto what you were really wanting all that time. True love. “I’m hoping to start medical school full time as the small classes I’m taking now don’t grant me the access I really want to be able to really advance in the field.” Motoki definitely looked impressed as she told him about her classes that she was taking.  
“So really you’re just getting a head start on your internship while in school now. Very cool and very smart. Aren’t you doing something similar Usagi?” he asks as I smile, “Working with Miss. Haruna on it.” I tell him as the others arrive. It’s about five minutes and six seated bodies later that were ordering food and drinks. Mamoru is right next to me as Makoto is next to him. Rei is by Ami while Minako is by Rei.  
When the current topics leave the table, shelving Ami’s medical classes and my stuff with Miss. Haruna, we get a little bit quieter and discuss the purpose of meeting up here today. “So on todays elephant room topic…” Minako begins with a light heart comment while getting down to business, “I’ve been consulting the fires still but other than what I’ve seen before there’s nothing more.” Rei states looking both defeated and worried.  
“That could also be a good thing.” Makoto tries, “Or it could mean that their laying low to. That they know our plan for them.” Rei interjects. She’s never been one for being idle. Not unless she’s in front of the fire then it requires her full concentration so her need to be on the move takes a gracious backseat to let her do it as it knows its for a greater purpose. “Even if they do our plan will still work.” Mamoru jumps in.  
“How so?” Rei asks as Motoki comes up to the table with our beverages, “The food will be out shortly.” He lets us know as another table waves him down. Rei looks to Mamoru, “Because the bad guys always have an agenda. They can’t stay idle for to long. Only the really smart ones stay in hiding.” I take note of his words as I wonder, “What if that’s what the current enemy is doing?” my question makes the others including Ami as she fusses with her computer still to look towards me.  
“What if their laying low in a place that the scanner can’t reach?” I ask as Minako looks to Ami, “Is that possible?” Ami looks to her with dawning realization on her face, “As good as the scanner is it can’t penetrate steel or metal underground. The signal strength like if you were up on a mountain or in the depths of the ocean would be incredibly weak if not gone.” I know it reminds Mamoru of our own conversation not too long ago.  
“So if our enemy is hiding underground the scanner couldn’t pick it up.” Ami looks to me with resigned features, “Unfortunately. The scanner is good, but it was already a stretch to begin a nation, a worldwide scan, there’s not a strong enough signal to penetrate into the basement…” than as if a thought struck her she starts to debate as she begins to type almost madly into the Mercury computer.  
Her eyes focused on the numbers and letters that to those of us closest to her look like a jumble of nonsense. To her however it makes absolute sense. Even Mamoru from looking at it upside down gets a little thrown off by the sequence, “But if it were linked temporarily into a satellite uplink…” her eyes look hopeful as a loading bar appears on the screen. Her words finally hit home to what she’s talking about.  
“Wait are you…?” I look over then lean over the table to see the bar nearly completely loaded as the words above read ‘uplink 85%’. I look to her as shock falls over my face, “Are you hacking into Japans satellite?” I ask trying to keep my voice down as I felt like I was going to squeak it out. She looks to me, “We need this to have a better scanning edge. The satellite I’m linking up to can penetrate underground and through most metals.” That now has me curious as Makoto gives her a thumbs up.  
“Way to go Ami, always knew you had a slight criminal side to you.” She remarks in laughter as Rei asks skeptical of what’s going on, “That’s not…illegal is it?” Ami looks to her, “No…not unless I get caught…relax there’s no black helicopters going to be coming around. I’ll be out long before anyone notices even a glitch happening. I’ve already re-routed regular data traffic patterns and thanks to the computers recent updates and software designs I can be uploaded for at least a half an hour before they know what hits them.”  
I’m both impress and terrified of what Ami’s capable of, “Let me just say I’m glad you’re on our side.” Minako says as Ami smiles, “Of course!” they giggle as Mamoru finally says, “Black helicopters? You hacked the military satellite?” even he’s astonished by now and a bit impressed by her abilities in hacking, “Not just hacked it but…” she shows him the computer which now showed off what she had done.  
The configured numbers looked like lines of code from what I could guess from my time in knowing Ami. I just couldn’t read it or understand a bit of it. Even Mamoru looked hard pressed in trying to configure it. “I created a backchannel link in their system that allows me access whenever I want. It works wherever I am and only I can gain access to it through my little compute right here.” We were all stunned by this.  
“I wish I’d thought of it earlier to be honest. I’ll just have to shut it down periodically to avoid anyone from being able to make an attempt to trace it…not that they really could…” This causes us to look at her concerned as she looks back up at us, “Well to be fair nearly everything is traceable if you can compute the coding that goes into it. However…” she pulls it around to put more coding into it and it comes out looking distorted as anything.  
“Crap Ami that looks like it came off the ship at Roswell.” Makoto looks as perplexed as we all do as we gaze at the coding she’s using, “That’s cause it Mercurian. Even if they do manage to decipher some of the code used, I translated the rest to Mercurian, so it looks like it’s been corrupted into gibberish to them. The most they’ll be able to do is delete the code out of their system at best and code can always be either re-written or shifted to another section that hasn’t been hit by them yet.”  
We were all equally stunned and impressed by her thought process on this as her computer’s uplink began to scan. “Now we should start to see better results.” She puts it down as we start to talk about what the plant to lure out the enemy should be. Its fifteen seconds later that a resounding beep hits the screen. Startling all of us as we looked at the screen as Ami picks up her computer, “This is…interesting.”  
“What?” I asked as she looks to me with a worried face now, “Well the scan automatically starts from where we’re currently located at by default.” She starts as we look to her with worry as Minako asks while pointing to the little round icon on the screen as the beeping gets a bit faster, “Ami where is that beeping icon located at?” Ami looks to her then to us, “That’s here.” With an expression that reads with a slight ‘shit!’ in it as were now all a bit worried.  
It’s literally seconds later that everything becomes a one big giant blur of glass and motion. It’s as if what happens next is in slow motion. I don’t even have time to look out the window to see what the beep outside could possibly be, what monster could possibly be out there cause without even thinking about it, Mamoru, who must have sensed or seen it through the window before me, grabs onto my form yanking me without warning out of the booth.  
I don’t protest or put up a fight as I know it’s instinct for him to do so. I then hear as I barely see them through the excessive amount of screaming and commotion going on, Rei grabbing onto Ami and yanking her out of the way in a similar fashion of what Mamoru did for me, while both Minako and Minako dive bomb out of the way yelling at other customers to get back as they scramble towards them, ushering them to leave as a sheen of now shattered beyond repair glass gets sprayed and showered onto all of those within range.  
The broken glass sounded like a shot gun had gone off right by our ears and to be frank had it NOT been for who we were and our advanced nature and abilities I’m sure we’d be partially deaf from that right now. Instead we were just having difficulties hearing anything over the sounds of the echo it’s caused as people that are also in the arcade, the ones that were in the back and heard the commotion come out and start to scream from the shock of what’s going on not that we can blame them.  
The glass is coating everyone and everything around us as I scramble to get out of the way, slipping on some of the broken fragments as Mamoru pulls me further towards safety. I look around making sure no one else near our table was in the path either. I wanted to be sure of that before we began to engage this monster. Thankfully there weren’t any as we all shake glass off our forms carefully so.  
We’re not immune to getting sliced to ribbons and considering we already had scraps from it along with several cuts to our exposed skin and cuts to the clothes we had on we got incredibly lucky. The only thing that saved us were each other and our natural reflexes hitting us hard. The rest of the patrons seeing the monster coming in flee out of the arcade to terrified to do anything else but vacate the premises and really its better that way as I see what the cause of our interrupted meal was.  
I look up to see the monster responsible for the disaster and not for the first-time clutch at my broach, “Here we go again.” I mutter to myself as I watch it carefully. I motion to both Minako and Makoto to go transform while Ami and Rei lead the customers left behind to safety. Mamoru and I however are pinned on the other side and don’t have an option to leave out to transform so we have no choice but to play it cool till the girls come back in.  
I see Ami duck behind the counter where Rei watches her back as she begins to analyze the monster with her computer. Typing away furiously on it as she slips into Mercury mode with ease. Rei is slowly but gently pushing Ami to finish the scan on the monster so we can begin to fight it soon. Apparently, the plan to act that we gave up the fight worked out after all as it came after us.  
I do notice one thing about this creature though, it seems to be searching for something in here…or perhaps someone as it steps off the table we were just talking at and on to the ground. I look over to see Mamoru trying to tell me something, but my hearing is a bit distorted from the effects still. We’ve been through worse than this before, so I don’t know why I feel so scrambled all of a sudden.  
“Having fun? One of my many powers…sound wave distortion. At the right levels it can turn glass, something so tiny and fragile into a weapon of destruction.” The monster smiles evilly at those left around, its voice sounds gravelly, like it needs a throat lozengier. It shoots out another wave blast as it hits the glass windows behind us. The noise and impact heard only puts a further dent into our hearing and senses.  
I push my confusion on my senses aside and force myself to hear and now see things properly as the sound waves do feel incredibly distorting to me. Mamoru seems to be doing not much better, “Who-what are you?” I shout from where we are. That’s when I see both Luna and Artemis coming up from the central control in the basement area. The monster locks eyes with them and full on glares at them.  
“Mau!” it shoots out another wave of power as Rei leaps from where she’s at to grab them both and get them some place safe. Glad she did that as we were still to far away and seeing as animals already have a higher frequency for sound waves it would have hurt them terribly to be hit by it. I did notice however that it seemed to know what they were though and NOT just as two ordinary cats.  
Like it recognized them. That’s when I notice that I’m hearing emergency services coming up and police on the way. I’m just thankful that Motoki has a back entrance to leave out of and I hope he’s already gone along with his sister in this. I turn to see that the creature notices this to, turning only its head around briefly as it seems to be able to do a 180. Its quiet creepy to be honest as it decides to ignore them.  
Instead we see Venus and Jupiter now pushing people back. The creature notices and seems to debate on whether or not to attack them as their not a direct threat to itself. We take the opportunity though to transform. Now its Moon and Mask that stand before the monster as it looks perturbed at us.   
“You know what, scratch that who the hell attacks cats?” I snap at it as it turns towards me, “Not regular cats, their Mau felines. They helped lead to the destruction of my queen, the rightful ruler of this planet. Now she will take the reign from those who claim it at theirs.” His expression showed no doubt in his words and they were definitely aimed at me. The way he looked at me, it was critical.  
It moved its arm about as I saw it transform into a vine like appendage now as it shot it out towards me. I ducked the first one as it hit a nearby table, slamming into the contents on it before whipping it towards me and getting it wrapped around my neck this time. The speed of it was to fast to even see. It yanks me up so fast and hard I’m shocked I don’t have whiplash at the moment, “Your magic glamour doesn’t fool us moon princess.” Despite the lack of breathing problem I’m having, I can’t help but widen my eyes at its words.  
“We will be back, considering this…” it motions to the arcade, “A warning to give up the throne you’ve stolen. It wasn’t meant for the impudent white moon.” the words are spit out, not in a screech or a yell but in a near refined way that makes me question where the hell this creature came from and who’s pulling the strings here. No way its working alone. It lets out a shriek of anger as a steel tipped rose cuts through its arm with a sharpness the creature didn’t anticipate as the arm is cut off and I’m released.  
Then as it looks to him it seems to recognize him as well, “Such a sad fate that the prince of earth allowed himself to be tainted by a Lunarian.” The word Lunarian is said with such disappointing malice that I can’t help but actually feel personal about this. Yeah I’ve gotten snapped at with hateful words by Beryl, Diamond, Sapphire even, Wiseman and Nehellenia but this somehow felt more personal.  
When in the hell did I ever encounter this creature before for it to see through the glamour? “If my queen cannot save you from this witches clutches then she will put you out of your misery as your parents would surely have done had they not been blinded by the need for peace.” The words are spoken as if the creature knew him or at least knew his past life parent’s yet his presence rings no bells.  
Tux is as stumped as I am in this, but it doesn’t stop him from snapping back, “I’d suggest too curb your tongue when talking about Sailor Moon like that.” The creature merely laughs in his face and spits out, “I hold no doubt the moon witch has heard worse.” It’s a true but unfortunate fact, “You will learn the truth of things soon enough…Prince Endymion…” the knowledge that it knows who he used to be is startling as he’s definitely NOT transformed in his prince garb, it’s not a heated enough battle for that.  
The creature even steps forward just a bit as we hear the services getting closer. “The world may have forgotten about the golden kingdom and its capabilities yet my queen has not.” It then looks to me and practically snarls its response, “The day will come where you will pay for your mother’s treaty and for sneaking off to earth to be with him.” It motions as both Venus and Jupiter come in and go to use their powers only to have it use the power blast of the sound to amplify them up off the ground.  
With little to no gravity beneath them they loose focus and are then throw into the wall. Their bodies impact and make fairly large dents in it, breaking the shelves on impact and shattering more glass over there. Before I can raise my scepter the creature vanishes seemingly into thin air without a trace as quickly as it arrived, yet way less noisy as it leaves behind all of the destruction in its wake.  
Jupiter gets up and huffs out in a frustrated voice, “Hey! What in the hell was that?” Venus dusts herself off as I tell them, “I have no idea, but I have a feeling on who MIGHT know. Let’s get out of here.” I gently order as we head on out through the back letting the police handle what as going to happen next. We didn’t need to be a part of the investigation, we just had to conduct our own and figure out what the hell that was all about.  
Especially since other than trying to choke me, it didn’t make a move to attack anyone other than blowing out the windows. We race to the temple and see that Rei, Ami, Luna and Artemis are already there. Rei secures the door as we get in and de-transform, Minako and Makoto follow suit once were safely inside. “Okay well the plan worked.” Rei mutters. Like it was a bad plan now, “We flushed it out.” I mutter back.  
I then go to Luna and Artemis, “Did that thing seem familiar to you?” I ask bluntly as Luna blanches, “No, not at all. Though it was strange that it did seem to know that we were Mau.” Artemis agrees, “There’s definitely something wrong if that things knew what we really are.” As Luna continues with, “What’s even more disturbing is it knew who you were. The glamour didn’t phase it at all.” I nod knowing this and wondering what it all means as I peer over at Luna and see her worried expression.  
“We cannot have this.” She starts as she jumps up on a higher dresser in Rei’s room as its further in the temple to give us more privacy. This situation feels a little ‘def con four’ right now, “The ability to protect the world is only further helped by people or creatures NOT knowing who you are or being able to identify you with ease. This thing saw you and in seconds flat knew who you were!” I can tell this has her upset as it should.  
No enemy has ever been able to do that. No one. Well not no one…not technically. Diamond somehow knew but that was mostly because of his odd obsession with me. His need to make me his Queen blinded him against so many other things that he was able to see who I was through the expression in my eyes. Plus, I do think he did hold a love for me that while wasn’t to pure it was with good intent…at the end when he was shown the truth of things.  
This creature however held no such feeling toward me. It just knew. “It also knew about Mamoru being a former prince to and mentioned something about him being ‘tainted’ by me.” I put quotes around tainted as Luna pished and rolled her eyes at that notion, “So it’s someone who hates the white moon family then. I think I heard a mention of a princess who was in line to become the next Queen of earth.” we look to her as she struggles to recall, “I think I remember to.” Artemis jumps in.  
“We hear that she was the last one left after the King and Queen weeded out the rest on earth to meet with the prince.” He tells as I pull form the conversation we had with the creature, “Yes the creature said that its queen would be taking its rightful place on the throne and try to ‘save’ Mamoru or kill him if she can’t.” I touch his arm as he pulls me in closer to him. I have a sneaking suspicion that that creature was the one who attacked the plane after Galaxia, and he was just now seeing it.  
“This so called queen clearly is as resentful of our being together as Beryl was.” He comments as he looks outward with distain. That’s when Luna says, “Hold on, I think there was someone else. I can’t remember the name, but it was during your former courtship.” We all look to her as she looks to the ground trying to recall the events in question. “She was another princess or another royal at least.” She begins to pace around on the dresser.  
“I’m not sure on her affections towards the prince, my memories are a bit muddled still but being that the prince had already fallen for Serenity having spent enough time with her during peace treaty meetings that the girl’s pushy parent who was getting your parents agitated with their aristocratic hounding, was unable to garner more than an audience with the king and queen of earth. Favoring the option of peace and love over power.” Both Mamoru the girls and I are startled by this revelation.  
None of us really knew of another girl’s affections towards Mamoru in the past. I certainly never knew of this girl. If she was mentioned to me by anyone I certainly forgot all about her and had no recollection despite the information we were being provided right now. Even with Beryl I started to regain some amount of memory of her when we got our memories back but there was nothing of this woman.  
“That’s actually what the creature said. That the peace treaty was what was picked.” I noted as I started to connect more dots here. “It just so happened that we fell in love.” I turn towards him as he nods, “Definitely.” The one spark of happiness enters his eyes despite the negative energy going around with the current topic of discussion. He pulls me in towards him to hold onto as I sit contently half in his lap and half still leaning against the bed frame we were by. Mamoru had definitely changed since he’d returned in terms of affection.  
He no longer pulled away in front of others and now pulled me in towards him and encouraged affection compared to how he used to be. The girls definitely noticed but didn’t say anything as they were more used to it now. It was more or less Luna who pressed herself to ignore it as she didn’t feel we should be affectionate like that. Artemis had to be the one to tell her that we were supposed to be able to showcase a certain level of affection.  
Not too much but enough to be comfortable and casual about it which is where we were at. I think it just shocked her in the beginning seeing as how he used to rarely be affectionate like this, so it was understandable how his actions stunned her at first. I took it happily and never complained. “No matter, what we need to do is see where this creature could attack next and be prepared to attack it so we can ask it more questions.” Luna tells us as we all agree knowing how important it is.  
“She’s right, we got the information today because this thing it wanted to tell us.” The girls look to me as Luna and Artemis turn to me, “Lets face it we know what we know from it now because it decided to spill state secrets. It wants us to know.” I start, “Know what? That our new enemy is another power-hungry bitch?” Rei begins smarting off and for good reason. Its not our first time dealing with someone the way this princess sounds.  
“No, it wants us to know who is coming after us. The new enemy isn’t afraid of us and wants us to know it. It attacked us in the middle of the day in front of dozens of people. Not to mention it didn’t seem to care about exposure to itself either.” I mutter towards the end wondering who this new player was and what they wanted, cause it can’t just be some throne. The earth kingdom’s throne has been empty and buried for over a millennium at this point, why summon it up now and with what power?  
I could only imagine the power I had to hold in the future to summon the crystal palace to life, that was after many years of working with my crystal and magnifying its potential. So for this princess to even THINK about wanting to bring the old kingdom back to life NOW of all times, it just makes one wonder who she thinks she is and how much power she thinks she has or how much power she actually has.  
“More than that.” Ami interjects, “If this creature knew who we were BEFORE we even introduced ourselves then it means we have a serious contender. The glamour doesn’t work on it obviously and we thus need to be more diligent in making sure civilians are out of ear shot.” I nod, “Ami’s right. That thing attacked us in the middle of the day at a full arcade. We’re merely lucky that the people decided to run off.” I express.  
“She’s right, we could have been dealing with people who were trying to be ‘heroes’ about it by getting in the way, or some yahoo lookie-loo who was trying to get a snapshot to post on Instagram, Facebook or whatever else is out there for the hits or posts to comment on, and got themselves hurt instead merely by being in the wrong place and the wrong time. To be honest, I think we got incredibly lucky to have just had what happened today happen.” He did have a point on all fronts to be honest.  
“Things could have been worse.” He rolls his eyes at the notion of people getting in the way as they tended to do so. Some did anyways. Yet he does concede the fact that things went well today considering and I believe we all agree on that front. “They really could have.” I agree with him as Ami stands up, “I’m going to stay hacked in for a little bit and see if I can trace the energy signature of the creature.”  
I look to her as the others do, “With any luck we can figure out where the thing is laying low and with a little more luck we can find out who this princess is that had such a distain towards Usagi.” I give a sigh, “If she’s another Beryl I doubt it but its worthwhile to see. I mean it was indicated that her parent, whomever that is, pushed her towards them. Maybe she’s just misguided.” I try as we get ready to leave out of the temple. It’s a bit dark out by this point as we head on out.  
First Makoto and Ami head down the steps then Minako and myself with Mamoru following up behind me as Rei sweeps the steps as the last thing for her to do when we see Motoki and his sister coming up the steps. I can’t even remember the last time they were here to visit the temple so I wonder what’s going on for them to come here. “Motoki?” I nearly question till I remember I left the arcade without any of my things.  
I had already checked and saw that they left out the back door so I knew they were safe. He pulls my purse from behind him, “You forgot this.” He tells me but his voice sounds different. Like he’s trying to NOT say something but wants to. “What’s wrong?” I ask him, worried that maybe someone did get hurt. “We saw everything…we need to talk.” He says, his voice full of worry and need to know what’s going on.  
I look back to Mamoru who looks on a bit defeated as his best friend just found out who we all were, and it wasn’t by a decision that we made. It was because we were targeted and attacked at the arcade. I know that if Mamoru were going to tell him he’d want to do it on his own terms and not that of anyone else’s. The girls stop and try to talk to him, “Motoki I’m sure…” Minako tries till he looks at her.  
She backs off and sees the resolute on his face and notices that he knows. She doesn’t know HOW he knows but he knows and he definitely wants to talk about it. She then looks to me with a ‘time to come clean’ expression on her face. I think its all the fact that we’ve been wanting to tell those we care for the truth but due to fear of their safety we didn’t. Perhaps now with them knowing it might be safer since they’ll know what to look for and avoid.  
The unfortunate part is for him to know about Reika to…if that comes up which I’m sure it will since they were still very much in love together. I look over to Ami, “Ami, Minako might want to call your moms, it’s going to be a long night.” I tell them as I shoot out a quick text to my own mother letting her know I’d be spending the night at the temple and for once I wasn’t trying to cover for being over at Mamoru’s.  
“I’ll call off my shift tonight.” Mamoru says as he grabs his phone and begins to dial. As much as I want to tell him we’ve got it at the same time I know he wants to talk to Motoki about this and explain why he did or didn’t do what he did. He’s his best friend and deserves to hear something from him on it. Motoki finishes going up the steps towards the temple as Rei finishes more sweeping.  
I look around to see if anyone else is nearby as she asks within earshot, “How long before others figure us out?” I turn to her, “Honestly, I don’t know…but somehow this feels like its just the beginning.” Her eyes look out onto the horizon as we watch the crows flying around, “Yeah I get that to…question is, is it a bad thing or…is it inevitable.” Neither of us has an answer at the moment as she sits the broom down and goes inside with me.  
For the next near forty-five minutes we tell both Motoki and his sister everything they have questions on. Everything about the moon kingdom, despite Luna’s want to keep that under wraps we decide that keeping even one piece of information away is pointless at the stage. We tell them about all of our enemies, how it related to what they’ve seen as they ask about different events that they were witness to over the past few years.  
Its honestly a lot to take in. for anyone really to accept and process it. We’ve been dealing with this for years but being on the sidelines without no real knowledge of what’s happened and only having this slim idea that maybe something is going on has got to make this more difficult and weirder in a way to work with. I can see the tiredness on both of them as they can barely focus on one object in the room for to long after we talk.  
Being told that some of your good friends, one best friend for Mamoru and Motoki, has been through more crap with fighting and battling youma, daimons among others, nearly dying several times and actually dying on a few of those several, time traveling to both the past and the future to save the world, planetary traveling, meeting future selves, there was just so much to go over with them.  
This stuff was enough to make anyone’s heads spin. I mean we’ve been through enough stuff in the past few years than majority of people have in their lifetime is a lot to contemplate and consider. I know it’s a lot for them to take in that’s for sure. Its not everyday you find out that there used to be a moon kingdom, an earth kingdom, that there are enemies out there that want to take over and destroy us but that we’ve been there to stop it.  
That we’ve been keeping all of this is secret from them for their own safety. That the only real reason why were telling them now is because they saw Mamoru and myself transform and knew that we had no choice but to come clean. At least that’s what happened when they first came in here. Motoki was upfront and blunt about what he saw and that he KNOWS he saw what he saw that there’s no denying it.  
I think his siter was there to show us that while her brother was a tad upset for NOT knowing for so long that they were essentially on our side and wouldn’t breath a word of it. They just wanted to know the whole truth and nothing, but the truth and we didn’t have the heart to tell them anything other than it. “That’s a heaping load of information to take in what an hour.” Motoki runs his hands over his face.  
“I could almost go for a drink.” Unazuki first says as he looks to her, “Almost.” Before looking to us then, “Somehow, I always knew it…I didn’t know why or how I did, but I did.” She commented as she was amazed by the revelations of today, “Probably due to the amount of times you or others we knew we pulled into attacks.” Makoto reminded her as she sat on the back of a chair and blew a hair out of her eye.  
“So, all this time…” Motoki looked over at Mamoru, debating one could tell between wanting to be upset and understanding that Mamoru had his reasons for not telling at the same time. It looked tense between them as Mamoru tried to figure out if by keeping this from him, he hurt their friendship in the end or not. “Yeah…” Mamoru admits with reluctance as he tries to read and gauge his friend’s emotions through body language alone.  
“You have no idea how much I wanted to tell you so often, but every time I tried the words wouldn’t come out. My resolve to NOT involve you and get you potentially hurt kept me from doing so. You’re my oldest and best friend Motoki. If anything were to happen to…” Mamoru shut himself up as I touched his arm in comfort. I looked to Motoki, “He did what he did out of brotherly love.” I tell him.  
Motoki then stands up and walks up to Mamoru. It looks like a stalemate at first as Mamoru stands up to face off against him. Neither giving in as Mamoru appears to accept whatever fate has in store for him for keeping this from Motoki for as long as he has only to have the blonde man hug him brother to brother. He wraps his arms around him accepting the hug. I can feel his relief even through our link.  
We girls smile as Mamoru takes it in, “I get it I do…I’d probably do the same thing if it were me.” the hug ends, “However…” he gives him a low punch to the gut that throws Mamoru off balance but nothing to do too much damage, “You ever pull a stunt to NOT tell me something important again like that and I’ll beat on your ass, Tuxedo Mask or not.” We can’t help but bust out into laughter.


	6. news report & morning moment

The end in the beginning ch.6

Usagi POV

The girls, Mamoru the felines and I were watching the news reports with one eye open now compared to how we used to be with them where it wasn't so serious unless it was something massive happening. We normally didn't put much stock into them unless it was a huge splash but this one little attack garnered the eyes of a news reporter who seemed to be making it her mission to put it on the front pages...so to speak.

Even my father was going to be running something on it for his company. This actually had me concerned as even where he worked at, they rarely tried to jump in on the action of our battles as they considered it more rubbish press rather than hard working journalism. So it didn't cross their radar much something I was usually grateful for as it kept my dad out of the area where I was usually fighting.

The closest it's come to in the past was when he was scheduled to do some journalist work at the ball for princess D. That seems so long ago now…that had a bad wrap up considering everything that went down, but at least he got his story even if his film got ruined. While I felt bad that it did at the same time, I was glad as I later learned that he caught a few snap shots of me on it in the pink dress I wore.

He didn't know it at the time but I was sure that if he had a chance to really examine the pictures he would have noticed and demanded to know what I was doing there and HOW I got in since it was an incredibly exclusive invite only ball to attend. He didn't need to know I crashed it with Ami and Rei for senshi business, that princess D was a target for her diamond by one of Beryl's generals or that I fell over a balcony that evening.

So, as I watched this news reporter, she just gave off these vibes I wasn't thrilled with. The ones that said, 'I'll do whatever it takes to get my story and make a name for myself no matter who it hurts'. So, I was hoping that we could find out a little bit more about her when we had the chance. Right now, Ami thought it would be best to lay low for a little while and we didn't fault her for it.

This new reporter was trying to make the attack seem like a bigger deal than what it was. I mean Motoki already had the windows replaced and reinforced at that. Business was back to normal already and one wouldn't have guessed an attack even happened. As we watched the covered of it at my parent's place in the living room, my mother was thankfully out of ear shot while my father and Shingo were outside playing catch.

"What makes this attack such a big deal?" Rei asked, wanting to know what we were all questioning internally, "There's something different about it that's for sure." Makoto agreed, "Attacks like this never once before got this much press coverage that this one's getting so what makes this one different?" Minako noted, "I think the last thing that got press coverage was when Galaxia tried to take over, but she was putting her image out there everywhere making it kind of hard to ignore or cover up." I explained.

I then recalled right after she disappeared that news and media people were putting it up as a ridiculous hoax that was to terrify people but for what, no one knew. Thankfully we were able to keep the final battle in an area where it was contained and hardly anyone saw it. We not always be so lucky though, like these days if this reporter was going to keep digging in to look for something she shouldn't.

"The other few occasions before that were when the dark crystal was formed downtown by Diamond and Wicked Lady, when the dead moon circus was destroyed and when Mugen school was destroyed." Luna noted to as I concluded with, "That's also the point." I tell her, "Big historic to us events have caught the media attention, not little attacks like this. No, it's gotta be the reporter. She seems super focused on us…wait what...?" that's when I hit the volume button on the remote to hear her better.

The teens being brought on screen looked like some of the arcade regular customers that come in. I recognized them from my job. "The hell?" I muttered not liking where this was going already, "So, tell us what it was like in there? The creature that attacked you in the arcade." she asked the kid who couldn't have been more than 17 as he seemed to be excited to be on t.v. "This can't end well." Rei muttered.

I knew she was right I just didn't' know how unwell it could end. "It was huge as it burst through the window. I couldn't hear anything for almost an hour later. My boys and I tried to stay to help fight it off course, but we were ushered out by the wait staff going out the back door or else we'd totally have helped get rid of it." None of us could help nor stop the utter annoyance and sweat drops from creeping across our faces.

"Idiot." Makoto sighed as another guy jumped in on the screen, "Dude not even! That thing was huge and strong. Do you NOT remember how it almost strangled Sailor Moon." now I was annoyed by the kid, "It wasn't that bad." I snipped a bit recalling that moment. "I've had worse." Not that that was something to brag about, but it was the truth. "So, your saying that the sailor senshi shouldn't be meddling with these creatures anymore." before the boys had a chance to say anything further, she had the camera man focus on her.

"There you have it the testimony from two frightened young men on the horrific and terrifying monster that assaulted our country's youth as even the sailor senshi were unable to stop it. Reports of the creature disappearing and NOT having been destroyed have been numerous as more reports have been flooding in." I narrow my eyes as she signs off with a stupid smile on her face, "She's trying to unofficially attack us on t.v." Minako snapped.

"And clearly those guys had more to say, she cut them off to get what she wanted. Typical vulture." Makoto herself looked disappointed. "Not all journalists are like that…" I feel the slight need to defend that one as my father is a journalist, "Usagi, your dads a well respect man in his field, many are, she's…" Makoto began getting a frown on her face, "Just an ass looking to make a name for herself and going after us to do it."

I nod in agreement. "She's definitely coming after us...but why?" I asked the girls then looked to both Luna and Artemis. I'd ask if we did something to her, but we don't hardly know a thing about her. she sorta popped up out of nowhere. "Don't know but for now we still need to lay low. Wait for the next strike to happen so we can destroy that monster. Maybe that will shut her up on the reports." Artemis suggested.

"He's got a point if we destroy it next time and in view of people at a safe distance of course then she can't make any statements about us." Ami suggests as if it could be the answer, "We still have bigger problems though. Like where it came from and who's controlling it. Whomever this princess is, she's already gotten people killed, we can't let her have anything else. We need to nip it in the bud pronto." I tell her, "We can find that out next time we see it." She assures me as I feel a tad skeptical.

"Remember, it said that this was just a warning so we're going to run into it again. Which reminds me." Ami pulls out her computer, "My computer finished the scan of the creature in a more in-depth perspective." the girls huddled around us since we were sitting on the couch. "Tell us." Rei motions as Ami shows us the data pattern. "It's definitely what struck the plane. The energy and goo signatures match."

We look at the screen as she tells us of it all. "So, it was this creature that did it." Rei says in low tones, more to herself than any of us. "I have to tell Mamoru." I tell them as I pull out my cell only to hear a knocking at the door and a text on my phone from Mamoru telling me he's here. I go over to let him in, giving him a gentle kiss as he says, "I would have been here sooner but got held up in one of my classes."

I nod, "Your fine, Ami just got confirmation that the monster that attacked us was the same as the one who attacked the plane." I tell him. Not wanting to keep it from him. His face darkens as he turns to see the girls in the living room, "And here I came over for dinner with your, and your family and due to the news coverage, but this is good news. Now we can take it out next time we see it." his face doesn't show the good news though. I touch his arm as he smiles and leans down to give me a small kiss just as mother comes out of the kitchen.

"Oh, lovely to have you join us. Please take a seat we have plenty of food." she tells him, inviting him in as papa and Shingo come in from playing ball. My father gives him a curt 'hello' before going to the dinner table. "Well at least he seems somewhat happy." he acknowledges as we all gather around the dinner table for the food that out family style. With the t.v. shut off the girls, Mamoru and I are in the living room while my parents and Shingo take to the table, there just wasn't enough room at the table for everyone.

"So, were still on for waiting for this thing to strike again?" Makoto asks, keeping her voice low as we eat. Stuffing some corn into my mouth I nod my head yes, "This time though I think we should try to be a less populated area and see if it strikes us there. More room to fight and a more open advantage." I suggest till Rei says, "While that's good we can't try to guarantee that every time." I nod conceding to her point.

"It could decide to attack at a school for all we know. " She continues as I recall that even Chibi Usa's school had been attacked during the dark moon's presence in our timeline. "Ami that scanner you were working on is it still active?" Mamoru asks her. Ami looks up from her plate swallowing a bite full of food. I was just grateful that the living room was removed enough from the dining room and kitchen to not be overheard.

We were just meeting here since I promised my family a dinner night, Mamoru coming over was really more icing on the cake, "Yes, wherever this creature is it's definitely underground and hidden away. I've been able to get a general location of where it's at but it's still too wide of an area to search without US being noticed by locals in the area." she says. We nod as I ask, "How do we get it more specific."

She takes a sip of tea, "While my scanner is good even with the hacked in satellite data, this creature and its master are in such a deep down facility or something close to it that I'm only managing to get a roundabout location of where it's at so it's really in deep. The satellite can only amplify the signal so much." she concludes, "So this thing could be a mile below the surface, and we wouldn't know." Rei grunts as she eats.

"Around here in Japan I wouldn't say so. There aren't too many places that can go that deeply into the earth without hitting water mains, public access wiring..." as Ami talks she seems to be coming to a conclusion, "So if anything IF I can get access to archived underground systems in the targeted area I MIGHT be able to narrow down its location even further than where I'm at now." I could tell she wanted to pull out her computer but due to where we were at decided against it, plus she had a plate of food in her hands.

"Those records shouldn't be too hard to come by." Mamoru says as he eats to, "Actually it's public records that are easy and available to the public. It just takes forever if you go about it the usual method. Waiting in a three-hour long line and what not. These records might be private depending on the area it's narrowed down in." she concludes. "Ami, we need to know, so IF and MIGHT doesn't exactly inspire confidence."

Rei's words while truthful aren't really all that helpful right now, and Rei notates the curt look Ami shoots her, "Sorry, I'm just a little on edge." Rei apologizes, "We all are. We want this enemy gone and sooner the better." I assure her as Ami adds on, "Next time we see it I can get a more enhanced reading on it. Now that it's in my database when I scan it next, I should be able to configure a weakness."

That's when Minako asks, "So the last scan was only to see if it was the same thing that attacked the plane." Minako sends an apologetic nod towards Mamoru who takes it with a nod of his own, "No, in fact I was scanning last time for that to, my computer was just still uplinked to the satellite and I was busy disabling the link so I could put full computing effort towards the creature." she explained.

"It can do multiple things at once don't get me wrong, and it's very advanced, more than any computer on earth, but with any computer, no matter where it came from and no matter the CPU usage or the output, the more highly powered and data used programs you have running on the device, the slower it runs." she explains as Minako nods her head accepting the explanation as we mull over it.

"I can run it through the area to find it, but we need to have it more narrow down so that I can use less satellite and use more of the other program necessary to find its weakness. The satellite uplink takes up a decent amount of juice, so I'd rather have the other programs running faster so that I can find its weakness to get rid of it better." we all agree on that as my mother comes in to see how were doing and ask for seconds.

The girls and I are all fine obviously so when my father comes in to talk about an upcoming trip to the hot springs I recall the last time we all went there, "Sounds wonderful. We could use a break." I agree as the girl's nod, silently debating on whether or not to come with us for protection. I don't want their lives to be based around this though. It's not fair to them. I decide to point that out once my parents leave.

"We should go with you guys. A separate cabin so that we can - " I put my hand up to stop Minako from going on, "IF There's an attack, IF there is, I can definitely handle it till you guys get there. It's going to be still a week away. Please if you have something you want to do, do it. Your lives aren't to revolve around me." Minako looks concerned as Ami voices out, "She's right." Rei looks to her in slight shock.

"If we remain super focused on Usagi as her guardians we lose sight and focus of our own lives and therefore miss out on potential pieces of information. I was planning to do more work to locate the creature then hit up my own studies. I'm only a few chapters ahead of all my classes now." I could feel all of us sweating at that one. ONLY a FEW chapters a head...if another student would be so lucky.

"She's got a point." Makoto tells both Rei and Minako, "I have a cooking class to get to that weekend at the restaurant. I've been waiting to get back there for a few weeks now. Plus Rei you have a business class and Minako don't you have a meeting with your old agent?" Minako blushes at remembering that, "True but our duty as senshi - " I cut her off, "Is and always will be important for us all for obvious reasons…however…" I begin.

"When we shut out other portions of our lives to focus solely on it then we mess up the other portions of our lives that are also important. We become obsessive and people will notice that we're acting differently or behaving a certain way. It'll raise questions if we solely focus on it." She nods, "I guess you might have a point." I smile, "So what is up with your modelling career sailor V?" I giggle as the rest of the girls do to.

"I've done a few head shots for them. Nothing to much just a little bit of modelling already. I just don't want anything I do to lead me away from Japan, not yet anyways. Not until were all in college." She states as Ami says, "That's actually very smart. You could always go to a college wherever they contract you to be at the time and get a degree in fashion design." It was a secret desire of Minako's to get behind the line of fashion.

She was a good model don't get me wrong but at the end of the day she enjoyed fashion and the latest trends so for her to create the next trend would be a dream for her. She smiled, "I was thinking along those lines yeah. Either way I want to wait to finish up high school first." We nod understanding what she wants, "Have you thought of taking online courses? Makoto asks her as she gets another bite full in.

"Unfortunately, since there's no contract in place yet for anything till AFTER high school it also means that to start takes classes early on wouldn't be worthwhile. I could be sent to Paris and the school that I take early courses on is in China or something." Ami seems to nod in understanding, "That's understandable. There are only so many universities one can attend that have transferable credits to another." Minako nods as she continues.

"To be honest regular colleges can transfer to nearly any school but there are still some within range that won't accept the credits if it's not already part of their curriculum and the more well known the university is the less likely it'll have transferable credits as they want you to take ALL of the credits at that school." Ami then rolls her eyes a bit, something we rarely see from the genius of the group.

"It's really another way of making money off the students which is how their able to be more stringy on WHO gets in, but at the same time it's also less of a hassle for both them and the students to transfer the credits over and see which ones are actually transferable and which ones aren't." Minako then says, "In short till I get that contract at the end of high school I'd be better off waiting to take any college courses till I found a school near where I get sent to." That's when Ami seems to come up with something.

"The only other option would be to take a course or two and HOPE that the credit can be transferred to the university of your picking and if not at least you'll know more than the students there already do since you've taken a similar course already." Minako nodded, "It's a thought but If I'm going to be using my hard earned money to level up in the world I need it to count towards my chosen degree." Which we all understood that.

Since the teaching degree I was looking at was in Tokyo along with Ami's degree we were both able to take and work with early classes, Minako's situation was a little bit different. Even Makoto was already doing restaurant work with her professor but couldn't do much more than that due to the obvious restrictions we had as still being high school students. "Let us know when you get the contract, after you girls graduate." Mamoru pokes in.

We all look to him, "I still have a few contacts left in that business, I'm sure they can help out with finding a place to live out there near both your job and your university." Minako smiles at his helpful tip, "That could very well work out. Thanks." She nods as he gets back to eating. We all do as we wonder what's in store for us going forward. It isn't until later on once the girls leave out that Mamoru secretly meets me upstairs since dad threw him a look as if making sure he left out through the front door.

"Please let me know if you need anything at this hot springs place. Like me there." He urges as he holds me close, I kiss him as I say, "I want you there to be honest, but my parents would flip if they saw you there. Not that they don't like you but it's a family trip and while mothers on board dad is less…" he chuckles, "Less enthused." I nod, "Yeah pretty much. He might find it odd that your there." I express as he holds me closer to him, "Hell he found it suspicious when the girls showed up last time and that was the girls."

Now knowing that part makes him realize, "Gotcha, but I still want to be close by. Maybe I can get a cabin within range and drop by only when your alone. You could let me know." His fingers graze my skin tempting me to let him come along just in a different manner than being invited, "Don't you have studying to do for classes?" I asked as he sighs, "I know you want to be there and be protective of me…" I face him as I pull his face to see me.

"I love that and I love you for it, but please try to NOT forget that I'm also a kick ass sailor senshi that has had her fair share of battles over the years, several of them alone. I can handle myself for a period of time before backup arrives. While I would need backup I can also handle it on my own for a little bit to." I wanted to be sure that I wasn't emphasizing on what I could do to much, I know he still felt a certain way about the plane.

I didn't want to sound like a hypocrite or something. "I know I just can't help it. I love you and I want to protect you. Though I will admit sometimes watching you in action can be incredible to see." I looked at him feeling a little proud of myself. "Really? You enjoy watching me kick ass?" he smiles, "Kicking ass is a huge benefit…" that's when his voice dips low as he whispers, "But watching you jump and flip around in that short skirt is a nice little bonus to." My eyes widen as I slap his arm playfully.

"Perv!" I snicker, no anger at all as he chuckles, "You love it." I kiss him, "Yeah I do…I love how you find me to be both kick ass and hot at the same time." A true feminine empowerment moment. To feel both feminine and be a rough around the edge's bad ass at the same time without trying and just being true to one's self without knocking someone else down. Mamoru got that and loved me for it.

"I want you to stay the night." I tell him as I straddle his lap, trying to coerce him into staying even though I know he has work in the am. I have school tomorrow morning then a shift after that. We really do need to get some sleep, "I want to, to. Do you think though that we'd be able to pull off just sleeping next to each other?" he asks, debating this as I was. Before I could talk us out of it I tell him, "Yeah."

His eyes widen at my response, "Were both to tired for the day and we both need our sleep for tomorrow so why not stay the night and just sleep in my bed." He seems to contemplate this for merely two seconds before he says, "I think that would work. I just have to set my alarm for six so I can leave and NOT alert your parents." His smile is infectious as I get ready for sleep myself snuggling comfortably in his embrace.

Even though I want to make love to my boyfriend I also love these nights to, where were just laying with each other and taking comfort in the others presence. Besides, I can still hear my parents up watching some late-night show. The few times we have had sex in my room I had trouble with staying quiet. I think we only got away with it by the skin of our teeth as Mamoru had barely evaded being seen. Telling my father that the sounds coming from my room were from a youtube video can only work so many times before it becomes suspicious on what's really going on.

So the next morning as I could feel the sun rising up I heard dads car leave out early. I didn't question it only smiled at the fact that Mamoru and I had a chance to be together if he was awake enough for it. I look over at his sleeping form and see him sound asleep. Its only 5:30 right now and as I've told Mamoru, I'll only ditch sleep if it's for sex…or a crying infant…or the building is on fire…or something like that.

I'm to sleep fogged to put that in the correct order. Instead I slip my hand down beneath the covers and find him already half mast in his boxers he wore over. He makes a sound in his throat that conveys to my ears 'don't stop' even though he's obviously still asleep. I decide to kiss his lips and tease him to wake up so he can enjoy the pleasing attentions more. Eyes still half lidded I can sense that he's starting to stir.

I slip my head down beneath the sheets and start to massage his length with my tongue just as his eyes must have opened as I feel him pulling the sheets back to see my head over his lower head, "Enjoying the view…" I wrap my tongue around the broad head as he gasps, "Usa…your such a temptress." I smile as I continue on only to have him nearly yank me up nearly in a rush as he pulls me into his arms.

I kiss him gently as he rolls over and once my legs naturally part ways to let him have access, reaches down with one hand to push my panties aside and effortlessly slips himself into my heated core. Now its my turn to gasp in pleasure as he pushes himself in all the way. He puts another finger to his lips as we both know my brother and mother are still home. I nod knowing we still need to be quiet.

The t shirt I wore for bed begins to ride up a bit as he moves gently over me. I'm grateful that I had gotten a new bed shortly after Galaxia left, the old wooden one while nice was to creaky and would have alerted my family by now, while this metal frame I now had hardly made a sound as he pumped himself into me. It wasn't a face pace but the strokes he took in me were tight and deep as he pushed in.

He then pushed my shirt up high enough to have access to my breasts, nipping the nipples in his efforts to pleasure me. It was hard to keep my voice down, but I knew if wanted this to keep going I had to. Mamoru rarely did this with me in my own bed for obvious nearly caught before reasons so his letting it happen now wasn't something I was going to get to loud on. I didn't want to get caught.

Or more importantly I didn't want to discourage him from doing this in the future at my parent's place. We barely spoke a word, letting our body language talk for itself as we went by sight, touch, and the small sounds that came from each other. He finally pulled the shirt over my head but wrapped it around my wrists and jammed it into the crook of the frame, a loop that was decorative to most but was useful to us.

Neither of us could help the salacious grin we had as he bound my hands together, gently though, not wanting to hurt me as he continued to please us both. It was a little kink we liked to try every so often. It added to the pleasure between us as we discovered new bedroom activities to enjoy with each other. So, when he pushed in harder and pushed my legs up and over not only his shoulders but to touch mine I felt him in me even deeper.

It was incredible to feel as he began to pound into me harder than before. It was hard to NOT make any sounds, but I was getting close and I DIDN'T want anything to ruin or stop this, so I held my tongue. So, when he sat up with my ankles to either side of his head and kept thrusting, I couldn't help but nearly laugh at the intimate position we were in. He saw the twinkle in my eyes as he turned his head slightly to kiss each ankle.

His pace even slowed down as he put little butterfly kisses on them. It was sweet and slow as he kept up the slow pace within me. So when he reached up and pushed them down and apart as far as he could I felt the shift and pressure change of him within me as he closed his eyes briefly at the change in position now to. His hands on either ankle as he started to pound harder. The smallest grunts could be heard coming from him as he pushed and began to slam into me harder than before.

The bed began to rock a bit now, creating noise. Mamoru seemed to be a little to lost to care about it, either that or he did hear it but he legit didn't care due to how far we were alone and how close to orgasming we both were. His pace grew so fast that I couldn't help the whimpers that came from my throat as I tried to bite down on them. His hips began to jerk into me as he grinded himself, balls and all into me.

I could feel the orgasm coming close, could feel him lengthening and thickening, a signal for sure of his upcoming release as I clenched hard around him. My orgasm hitting me full force. I knew I was going to scream. I couldn't stop it, the pleasure was to intense NOT to. Sensing this Mamoru slammed down hard onto me, forcing himself all the way in as he ground his length inside of my heated core.

I felt the pleasure intensify and continue as he then slammed his mouth onto mine. Swallowing my screams of ecstasy as he grunted out his own, his hips jerking and pounding out the last of his orgasm into my tight heat. It was nearly painful as he gripped me close to him, his own legs lock in position around him as I held on for dear life. As we both began to come down from the incredible pleasure we were just on only then did he lighten his hold on me as I held on with a lighter touch myself.

He shifted inside of me, his length receding in size just a bit, but he was still pretty big. He always was, not that I was complaining, far from it. So, when he finally pulled out, I felt like I was missing a part of me now. That always happened after we made love. It's like I was his perfect fit and he to me. As he unhooked the shirt I wore from the bed frame he murmured gently, "I should go." as we both get up to get dressed.

I thoroughly enjoyed being with him, each chance we get is wonderful especially now with his job, mine, both of us in school for higher education and me for high school still, but our time was up for this morning and soon mother would be making breakfast. I didn't want her to catch wind of him still here. She maybe more lenient than dad was but she was still a parent who wouldn't want to watch wind of that going on.

He's fully dressed when he leans over and kisses me once more, "I'll see you later on. I love you." I smile, "See you and I love you to." I smile as he high tails it out of the window, taking a nice large jump and sprinting off. He'd gotten too good at that over the years, but it was good to be to good rather than to still have trouble with it. Mornings like this were why I was glad I got on the pill months prior. It REALLY came in handy for when we lost control and didn't even think about a condom.

Granted it was best to use both, but this was one of the few instances where at least one was used on a regular basis. So, as I got ready for school and came down the steps Shingo and I hit the table for pancakes and bacon. His arched brow made me curious before he said in low tones away from our mother still cooking, "Careful about the sounds next time or mom might hear it." I blush and nod thanking him for NOT telling her.

Minako POV

I know Usagi wants us to have time to ourselves to have our own lives, and yes it does make sense. Give ones self a break helps with creative process but you feel less fatigued and less drowned by what your currently pressing onto yourself. Breaks are required to work efficiently unless it's something your genuinely excited about then you don't feel drowned out or fatigued so in a way I do agree.

However, this was not really that same case. Protecting our princess, our prince who was to be our future queen and king of earth wasn't something to take a break from. Not in the sense that she was thinking of no. I loved my potential career as a model and fashion mogul. I did, but my truest desire hasn't changed from the past. To be the best senshi, guardian I can be. To protect one of my best friends and to make sure that our mothers wishes become fulfilled in life, for her to restore peace and balance by taking to the throne.

Just as her past mother did with my past mother by her side, proud to be standing next to her as I would be to stand next to Usagi's side in the future. It was a dream of mine back then and it hasn't changed. Not completely anyways. I still want to pursue fashion and modelling, but modelling is a temporary job to have at best. Its unfortunate but its true. The moment your no longer young enough or seen as pretty enough in the right eyes its over. Its why fashion is the back up for me.

However, with Usagi's father taking the family this weekend out to the hot springs I get a feeling in my gut that says to follow them. Its instinctive and while I trust Usagi to take care of herself, if that monster comes back again but senses that she is alone it could call upon this princess to confront her. Usagi's good but we have no idea the power of this princess or what she's capable of so its honestly necessary to be there.

If anything, I know letting Usagi think she's there with out is what she wants so we can 'live our lives' but I have another plan. One that allows us to live our lives and still be there for her when the occasion calls for it. She's sweet for what she wants us to do, and I love her for it, but something will happen when its just her. Usagi, like Naru, Umino or the rest of us are trouble magnets. No doubt about that so yeah, I'll make sure were within the area so we can be there to protect her and her family.

I call the girls up, except for Usagi. As much as I want to tell her I know she'll put up a fuss about us not 'living out our own lives' as she wants us to and feel guilty for being the cause of such fuss. She's not someone who likes being the center of attention. How she'll do it in the future I'll never know, how she did it in the past I don't even remember. The problem with what she wants is factual really.

We're not completely normal. We never will be. We're only half human as it is as were reborn this way to still have connection to our planetary elements for attacks to protect Usagi who really once we all gained access to our powers leveled up and turned more Lunarian, or Venusian, the list goes on, the point is, is that were not fully human so to expect us to have fully human lives is more a fleeting dream than something to expect.

Yes, we have human desires to achieve and yes I plan to achieve mine and help my friends achieve theirs, but at the end of the day our duty to our princess and prince, is a top priority. I'm not simply protecting my best friend and sister in arms, I'm protecting the future light of this world. I look up from my phone as I type the message to the girls, sans Usagi, of what we're going to do this weekend as a red alert.

Its only a precaution and its not like we haven't done it before. Yes, Usagi's gotten irritated by it before in the past but knew we had our reasons and eventually let it go. This is no different. The girls responded with short respective answers of acceptance and working their way around it with what they also have going on. "Do you really think something will happen?" Artemis asks as he looks at the text I sent out.

"My gut says something will happen and we need to be there for her." I tell him getting ready for school now. "I think you need to tell Usagi that you'll be close by just to be safe." He suggests, "I would but her insistence that we try to lead normal lives as possible isn't something to do right now. Not while a new enemy is on the loose." Artemis sighs, "I think she has a point Minako, if you focus to much on your duty you lose sight of other areas of your life." Mirroring the words spoken that evening.

I sigh now, "Look…it's noble that she wants us to live our lives and find happiness with our passions in life. I love her more for it but at the same time we must not forget who we are or why we were reborn here to begin with. Or who we are capable of being. We're sailor soldiers, we fight and win against the enemies that want to hurt those we love and innocents. Those who choose to harm this planet." I tell him feeling firm in my decision, "Usagi is sweet, gentle and while she's a hell of a fighter…" I had to take a moment on that one.

Usagi was a strong, capable fighter. She was a quick learner and smart witted to and she managed to get some of our enemies to drop to their knees in submission for her. "I need to do my duty to keep that light alive even if it means getting her pissy with me cause I refuse to stop doing my duty." That's when Artemis jumps up to the desk top I have, "She's not telling you to stop doing your duty." He admonishes.

"She wants you to live your life. To have one outside of duty, to love and care, to have your own passions in life. Its okay to have something that's just you. To be honest it's what is needed to allow yourself to grow not only as a person but as a senshi to. How else do you think you get your power ups?" he asks, "Its not because of blind obedience to being a senshi or from solely focusing on your duty…" I go to talk but he puts his paw up.

It's a tad comical and enough to keep me quiet even though I act to leave out of the room not really wanting to listen at this point, "I know you felt a certain way after things happened with Galaxia." I turned my head and stop moving. He knows that Galaxia is a bit of a sore spot for me and the girls. A turned senshi nearly destroyed everything we hold dear and we battled her one on one for so little time that it not only made me feel inefficient as a soldier later on but made me wonder what the hell I'd done wrong.

"Artemis…" I warned yet he kept going, "You know it's true. You felt that you weren't strong enough as a senshi if one hit alone was all that was needed to take you all out. But that was going to happen regardless." I didn't want to accept his words, but he had a point, "Think about how Usagi beat her finally. She reached that part of her that everyone else thought was gone." Truer words were never spoken.

"She reached it and let it be free, letting Galaxia be free and be good again from the chaos that consuming her with her biggest weaknesses. For Usagi, it wasn't because she let her duty consume her, she loves and cares for everyone. She loves the simple things on earth that make people happy. She lets all of that joy in and she nurtures it." I was getting what he was saying now even as I sighed.

"You see Minako, it's not JUST from duty, it's from the love and care of your planet, your friendships, yourself AND of what you have with ALL of those things wrapped into one. Its needed to expand who you are." I take in his words, this coming from one of Queen Serenity's advisors from back in the days of the silver millennium so perhaps his words have some validity in them, and I should take them to heart.

"I'll think over your words." Either way as I left out of the room dressed for school and out the front door with Artemis trailing behind me I debated on telling Usagi about my plans to go there with the girls anyways cause regardless of anything, something was going to happen there, I just knew it, and we were going to be there at that hot springs to stop it and destroy that monster. It's already taken to many lives it won't get another.


End file.
